


Here There Be Dragons

by Selenay



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Dragons, Even though there's a baby dragon, F/F, Getting Together, Less Awkward Second Kisses, Minor Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, SHIELD 616 | The Bus, This is not Jurassic Park or Pern, awkward first kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1643786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenay/pseuds/Selenay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Bus team are called in for a simple retrieve and transport mission: an egg, which definitely isn't a dinosaur egg (because this isn't Jurassic Park, whatever Skye says), but might be equally fascinating. And then it hatches.</p><p>Featuring bonding over baby dragons, bonding *with* baby dragons, Asgardians, explosions, rescues, deering-do, and kissing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the fabulous [chaneen](http://archiveofourown.org/users/chaneen/pseuds/chaneen), who beta'd and saved me from my typos and errant commas like a true trooper.
> 
> This was written for the AoS Big Bang and I was lucky enough to have an amazing artist, who drew [this gorgeous illustration](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1622813) for the fic. Please kudos and comment to let her know how amazing the art is!

A blast of heat hit Jemma as soon as she stepped off the Bus, and she immediately began sweating. Dust filled the dry air, making her cough as it lined her throat and nose.

Coulson, May, and Ward brushed past her looking cool and unconcerned by the sweltering heat, even though they were wearing the same dark clothes they wore everywhere. Jemma suspected it was something they learned in the Academy. There were probably entire classes on how to confuse the enemy by never appearing to be touched by the elements.

She exchanged a glance with Fitz, who looked as uncomfortably warm as she felt, and hefted her pack higher on her shoulder before setting out to follow the other agents.

Fitz grimaced and said, "They're unnatural. Inhuman."

"Just well-conditioned," Jemma said. "They're human. I checked."

"Hmm."

"Hey, wait up," Skye called.

Jemma paused and turned to see Skye running down the ramp, still trying to put on sunglasses with one hand and sling her small pack onto her back with the other. The last time Jemma had seen her, Skye had been sitting in the lab, scowling at her computer. She'd mumbled something about a special project and Quinn, which was enough information for Jemma to back away quickly, even though she itched to ask questions.

"I thought you were still playing hacker," Fitz said.

Skye pushed her glassed up her nose, hiding her eyes, but Jemma was sure she rolled them. "You know how dated you sound, right?"

"To be fair, you've used the word a few times yourself," Jemma said.

"And I used it ironically almost every time." Skye shrugged. "Anyway, I've got a few things running but it's going to be a couple of hours before anything comes back, so I thought I'd tag along on your field trip."

"This isn't a field trip," Fitz said, looking affronted. "It's a mission."

"We're just picking up an artefact," Skye said. "How much trouble can we get into doing that?"

Jemma winced. "Our last artefact blew a hole in the side of the Bus because it was made of evil."

"OK. Yeah. But apart from that."

***

The dig they were heading for was half a mile away. Jemma was ready to collapse in a puddle of sweat by the time they got there. Ward, at least, looked slightly pink from the heat and exertion, but Coulson and May still appeared to be completely untouched. It was unfair.

"Why didn't we drive?" Skye said.

Her cheeks were flushed and she'd stripped down to a baggy sleeveless tank top and tied her hair off her neck in a messy knot. Tiny wisps of loose hair fluttered against her neck in a distracting way that Jemma was trying to ignore. It was difficult when her eyes seemed to make a habit of drifting back to Skye, even if she wasn't looking dishevelled and appealing. 

Coulson ignored Skye and the wilting scientists, and stepped forward to greet a young archaeologist who was walking rapidly toward them. She was coated in dust and deeply tanned. Fitz brightened up immediately, and Jemma elbowed him in the ribs, which produced a muffled squawk that everyone ignored.

"Hi, I'm Doctor Philips," the archaeologist said. "You must be the team from SHIELD?"

Coulson shook her hand firmly and introduced himself. "I understand you have an artefact for us, Doctor?"

"Anna, please," she said with a warm smile. "Follow me."

There was an amused smile twitching at the corner of Ward's mouth. Jemma wondered what that was about for a moment, before being distracted by the dig they were walking through. They passed close to a young woman carefully brushing dirt away from what looked like a large bone under the supervision of an older colleague. Further away, a man with a weather-beaten, deeply lined face was sitting next to what looked like a giant mandible that had been partially uncovered. A digital camera hung around his neck, but he was sketching the mandible anyway.

"Is anyone getting Jurassic Park vibes, or is it just me?" Skye asked, in a low undertone.

"It's not just you," Fitz said.

"Jurassic Park would never happen," Jemma said. "It's impossible. Nobody would be that reckless."

Two pairs of incredulous eyes met hers and she winced. Yeah, OK, if there was any way for Jurassic Park to be scientifically plausible, someone would do it. And then wonder why they were being eaten by velociraptors.

"Oh, shut up."

Skye and Fitz snickered, and Jemma pretended to ignore them.

Doctor Philips--Anna--led them to a tent in the middle of the dig. Ward and May wordlessly stationed themselves outside, while everyone else followed Anna inside.

Jemma's eyes widened as soon as she saw what was resting on the table that ran down the centre of the tent. "Oh, wow. Is that it?"

Anna smiled proudly. "That's it."

Coulson gestured for Jemma to take the lead, and she shot him a quick, pleased look before following Anna to her treasure. It was slightly smaller than a rugby ball, and its mottled blue shell almost seemed to glow under the bright spotlights someone had placed over it. Jemma itched to reach out and touch, but she didn't give into temptation.

"Where did you find this?" Jemma asked.

A map lay on the table next to the object, set out with gridlines drawn across it and coloured stickers marking finds. Anne pointed to a blue spot. "Here. At first we thought it was an _Allosaurus_ egg. We're fairly sure what we're excavating here is a new subspecies, and no complete eggs have been found, so it was very exciting."

"But it's not?" Jemma said.

"I can't say conclusively that it's not, obviously, but..." Anna plucked a stethoscope off the table and held it out. "Just listen to it and tell me what you think."

Jemma fumbled with her straps as she stripped off her pack and dropped it on the floor with a clunk. Fitz made an unhappy sound but she ignored him. Nothing in the pack should have been breakable. She rummaged in a side pocket for some latex gloves before taking the stethoscope. It was an old, well-used set that should have been useless for listening to a dinosaur egg, but it was probably the only thing they had on the dig and...

Thu-thump. Thu-thump.

It was faint, a soft, fast swooshing in Jemma's ears, but the pattern was familiar.

"A heartbeat," Jemma said, in a tone of soft reverence. "It's definitely not a dinosaur egg of any species."

"We finally dated the deposits we found it in yesterday. Five hundred years old: definitely not dinosaur."

"No," Jemma said. "It's alive. There's something living inside this egg."

"Is it safe to transport?" Coulson asked.

Jemma straightened up and handed the stethoscope back to Anna. "Probably."

"Probably?"

"Well, it's been sitting in a rock deposit for five centuries, so it's probably stable, but there's something alive in there. I can't guarantee anything."

Skye rolled her eyes. "This is totally turning into Jurassic Park."

***

"You don't like the heat much, do you?" Skye asked. "I noticed back there at the dig. You looked ready to melt. Or maybe faint from heat exhaustion."

"I'm English," Jemma said. "I'm good at cold and damp, not cook an egg in two minutes on the car kinds of heat."

"You probably would have been cooler if you'd unbuttoned a little bit."

Jemma raised her head from the microscope she'd been peering down for the last five minutes to shoot Skye a withering look.

"What?" Skye said. "You were wearing a shirt, a tie, and a sweater vest. Don't tell me that's the English uniform for hot sunny days, because I'll know you're lying."

"How?"

"I've seen the photos of people lying around in Hyde Park in their bikinis as soon as the sun appears. I know the British aren't as tightly laced as the stereotypes."

"Mmm." Jemma turned her attention back to the microscope. "I've never worn a bikini in the park in my life."

"What about a bikini on the beach? Have you ever done that, or do you wear one of those sports one-piece things that hides everything? I bet you wear shorts and a tankini, or one of those big floppy shirts."

"Skin cancer is very unpleasant, and I prefer not to expose myself to any more harmful rays than I absolutely have to."

"So you've never worn a bikini?"

"No."

"That's too bad."

Jemma felt her cheeks warm, and she refused to look up, even though she'd now stared at the fragment of dull brown rock for so long she'd forgotten what she was looking for. She was intensely aware of Skye's presence in the corner of the lab, although that was nothing new. If she was completely honest with herself, she was always too aware of Skye and had been for months.

After a long pause, Skye said, "You could have just taken your tie off and unbuttoned your collar. That wouldn't have hurt."

Jemma opened her mouth to reply, but she was saved from having to think of something witty and sarcastic by the lab doors opening.

"Is it safe to come in without a hazmat suit?" Coulson asked.

Jemma straightened up and gestured to her lab coat and Skye's t-shirt. "It's safe. Fitz is just a bit--"

"Paranoid," Skye said. "He's afraid the egg will infect him with something."

"Could it?"

"It sat in the middle of a busy dig for a week and nobody's sick yet," Jemma said. "I think we're safe. I'm ninety-eight...ninety-five per cent sure we're safe."

"Only ninety-five?"

"It's not an exact science," Jemma said. "I've swabbed and cultured the surface, just in case."

"Huh." Coulson obviously decided to take a chance and stepped into the lab, letting the doors swish shut behind him. "What have you been able to find out so far?"

"She's very excited," Skye said.

Jemma abandoned her microscope and moved over to the egg, which she'd put on a bench in a spare box lined with a soft towel. She patted the egg gently with a gloved hand, feeling the warmth radiating from it.

"There's definitely something alive inside," she said. "I don't know whether it's viable, but I've confirmed the sound it's emitting is a heartbeat."

"Could it hatch?" Coulson asked, looking alarmed.

"Maybe?"

Skye grinned. "She's got her fingers crossed, but it's been lying inside a rock for five hundred years."

"I don't have my fingers crossed!" Jemma protested.

"Yeah, you do. You're a terrible liar."

Jemma ignored the comment with all the dignity she possessed, pretending not to see the face Skye made. Instead, she activated the screen on the wall and pointed to the scans she'd taken.

"As you can see, the shell is made from something that protects the contents from most scanning techniques, so I don't know what's actually inside yet. But that gives us some clues that whatever this is, it's probably not from Earth. Obviously I'll need a sample of the shell to analyse, and we can't have one until we've confirmed it's not going to hatch into anything, but there must be minerals in it that reflect most kinds of radiation. That alone is very exciting."

"So it's alien?" Coulson said.

"I'm fairly sure it is, yes. I think it was dormant while it was buried and the excavation woke it up."

"What makes you think that?"

Jemma highlighted one of the readings on the screen. "The surface temperature of the shell has risen by 1.7 degrees Celsius in the four hours since I began monitoring. It's now three degrees above ambient room temperature, so whatever is inside is emitting heat and getting hotter."

Coulson frowned. "How certain are you that it won't hatch?"

"Not certain at all," Jemma said. "Isn't it exciting?"

"Not really. Exciting usually leads to shooting in my experience. Will you have any warning if it does?"

"I should do. I'm monitoring it with heat and motion sensors. The shell is quite solid so it will probably make a loud noise if it begins cracking."

She couldn't quite resist patting the shell again gently. Through the thin layer of latex, the surface felt pitted and uneven, and she wondered whether it would be safe to try to get a scraping from it.

"Keep monitoring it," Coulson said. "Send an alert if anything changes and get out of here. I don't want you trapped with it if something does hatch. May is flying us to a facility where it can be contained."

"Oh, but sir--"

Coulson's smile was sympathetic. "I know that it's fascinating, Simmons, but we're not equipped to keep it. Someone else will have to do the heavy lifting on this one; we're just the transport."

"Yes, sir."

Coulson briefly squeezed her shoulder and nodded to Skye as he left.

"Too bad," Skye said. She was standing closer than Jemma remembered, and her hand was warm when she squeezed Jemma's wrist for a moment in solidarity. "Maybe they'll let you keep the next cool but terrifying remnant of the dinosaurs."

"They probably won't," Jemma said. "That's the sacrifice I made to come out in the field."

"And look how much fun you've had," Skye said with a grin. "How many times have you nearly died now?"

Jemma chuckled. "It's been a bit more exciting than I ever expected."

"And you've loved every second of it."

"Not every second. But a lot of it."

"Yeah." Skye bumped her shoulder companionably and Jemma refused to lean into it. "I'm going to get some sleep. Try not to burn your eyes out studying that thing, OK?"

"I'll try," Jemma said. "Goodnight."

She was already hunting on her bench for a scalpel when the lab doors closed behind Skye.

***

Jemma had been working steadily in the lab for a couple of hours. Fitz had left his post outside the doors not long after Skye went to bed, so she was completely alone. Apart from May in the cockpit, Jemma suspected she was the only person still awake on the plane.

She'd always liked working late into the night. When the labs were quiet and everything was in shadow except her work area, that was when she often did her best work. Most of her first thesis had been written in the corner of a lab in Cambridge, huddled over her laptop with notes and slides on the bench beside her. Jemma had a lot of fondness for those memories. Writing her second thesis at the SHIELD academy hadn't been the same.

The work she was doing now was almost as frantic as writing a thesis. There wasn't time for a detailed analysis of anything, but Jemma was determined to capture as much as she could in the short hours before they landed. Even if she couldn't gather everything, she already had a couple of papers planned out just from what she had.

Not that she could publish, but she had a growing collection of papers she'd written with the intention of publishing one day. When some of the work she was doing was no longer classified.

Jemma looked up at the screen and noted that the shell's surface temperature had risen another 0.2 degrees over the last thirty minutes. She made a note and turned her attention back to analysing the scrapings she'd taken from the surface.

Something broke her concentration. Jemma froze and listened, trying to isolate the sound that had disturbed her. A soft beep caught her attention, and she turned slowly to face the lab door.

Skye walked into the car bay. She was wearing a loose grey Henley and striped pyjama pants, and her hair was messy from sleep. There was a faint frown on her face and she seemed to be looking for something. Or maybe, listening for something was more accurate.

Jemma put down the beaker she'd been stirring and watched, waiting to see what Skye would do next. It was possible Skye was restless and wanted company, but Jemma wasn't sure. There was something in her eyes that made Jemma hesitate to call out to her.

Skye paused by the SUV for a moment before shaking her head. She trailed a finger along the bonnet as she left it and moved back to the lab. The door slid open at her touch and she stepped inside.

"Skye?" Jemma said.

Skye didn't seem to hear her. All her attention now seemed to be locked on the egg and she padded directly to it. Jemma noted that her feet were bare.

"What's wrong?" Jemma asked. "Are you--?"

She broke off as a loud cracking noise echoed through the lab. At the same time, Skye reached out and placed a hand on the shell.

Nothing happened.

Jemma had half-expected some kind of strange light show or an explosion, but Skye stood by the egg with a hand resting lightly on it and that was all. The strangely disconnected frown was fading away from Skye's face, replaced by fascination.

"It feels alive," Skye said, in a tone filled with wonder.

"Skye..."

"I don't think it's going to hurt me."

"That's not what I'm worried about."

Skye smiled. "Yeah, you are. But I'm fine. Look, my hand is fine."

She lifted her hand and waggled her fingers to prove it. and Jemma could see that the flesh was unmarked.

Another quiet crack distracted Skye, pulling her attention back to the egg. She touched it gently again.

"What does it feel like?" Jemma asked.

"Warm." Skye looked thoughtful, rubbing a thumb over it absently. "It's kind of...pulsing. I think there's something moving inside."

Jemma's breath caught. "It's hatching?"

"Um, maybe?"

"Right, I have to call someone and we need to leave."

"I'm not leaving," Skye said. "Can you hear it?"

"I can hear the shell cracking," Jemma said. There was a spider web of fine lines covering the surface now, and she thought it rocked slightly against Skye's hand. "If it's hatching, then we need to get out."

"No, that's not what I can hear," Skye said.

Oh. Oh no. Jemma felt a cold lump of fear settle in her stomach. This was bad.

She was torn between staying and leaving, between doing the right thing according to protocols and abandoning Skye. It wasn't really a choice. She tapped a few commands into the tablet on the bench beside her. The lab door sealed with a buzz, and a comm link to Coulson and Ward opened up.

"Skye, you need to move away from the egg," she said, doing the exact opposite and inching closer. "We don't know what's in it."

"I'm not leaving it," Skye said again.

Jemma stretched out and put a hand on Skye's shoulder. "I know you're not. But maybe if you just stepped back a bit. OK? Just in case."

"But--"

"I'm sure it won't need you to help it," Jemma said, trying project calm reassurance in her voice. "We can watch from over here, that's it. Come on."

Slowly, Skye pulled her hand away from the egg and moved back, one step and then another. Jemma let her hand drift from Skye's shoulder down to the small of her back. Skye didn't shrug her away, so she kept it resting there. They watched as the egg rocked against its bed of towels and the cracks widened.

A small fragment broke away from the top and something dark and shiny poked through for a moment. It withdrew and the rocking increased, as though whatever was inside was having to fight to break free. Another, larger fragment fell away, and something battered a few more pieces so furiously they flew through the air.

Out of the hole it had created, a slim head emerged. Neck and shoulders followed. The creature peered around the lab looking wobbly, as though its head was too heavy for its neck. Jemma had to stifle a giggle at the sight.

The creature seemed to gather itself and then burst out of the shell, sending pieces flying through the room to hit instruments and walls with soft tinkling sounds. It was covered with dark brown scales and a whip-cord thin tail lashed the air. On its back, two wings fluttered and slowly stretched out, knocking a beaker off the bench. The membrane that stretched over the wings shaded to a deep, stunning red at the edges and they almost seemed to glow in the light.

"You're beautiful," Jemma murmured.

It cast around, its head turning on its thin neck as though it was looking for something. Skye made a soft sound and moved over to the bench before Jemma could stop her.

The creature lurched toward Skye, and Jemma could hear someone--Coulson? Ward?--shouting outside the lab as it skidded across the smooth surface of the bench. Her heart was in her mouth as the creature tumbled against Skye and...stopped.

It looked up and rested one tiny foreclaw against Skye's arm. Skye tentatively stroked a finger along the ridge on the creature's head, and its golden eyes fluttered shut with a low sigh.

"Raisha," Skye said. "Her name is Raisha."


	2. Chapter 2

"It's a dragon," Fitz said, his flat tone in direct contrast to the excited light in his eyes.

"We can't definitively call it that," Jemma said.

She looked over to Skye, who was sitting cross-legged on a bench with the tiny creature draped over her lap. One wing hung down over Skye's knee and its chin was cushioned on Skye's thigh so she could gently stroke the top of its head and down its spine. The creature was making a noise that almost sounded like purring, and as far as Jemma could tell, it was sound asleep.

It was very small, barely taller than Skye's knee when it stood up on hind legs, and so far it hadn't done anything except chirrup, fall over, and fall asleep. There hadn't been any sign of breathing fire or flying around the room, but despite all of that it was hard to deny that it looked a lot like a dragon.

Which was impossible, the logical part of Jemma's mind insisted. Dragons were fictional.

This one didn't look very fictional.

Skye hadn't been able to tear her eyes away from it since it had hatched, and she looked content to stay where she was for as long as she was needed. Jemma didn't know how she felt about that. On the one hand, there was no way to be sure the creature--fine, the dragon--would stay happy and docile. On the other hand, Skye looked happy and Jemma always felt better when Skye was happy.

She turned back to Coulson, Ward, and Fitz, who had been standing outside the lab, looking worried for the last fifteen minutes. Ward was frowning a lot and giving Coulson significant glances. He was probably trying to get Coulson to send him in to save them from the very dangerous alien creature.

Who snuffled in its sleep and buried its nose closer to Skye's hip.

Jemma really hoped it didn't suddenly cough and turn out to be a fire-breather after all.

"Is it dangerous?" Coulson asked.

Jemma shrugged. "I have no way of knowing at this stage. I'll need some time to scan it and study it."

"You should stay quarantined," Fitz said. "It might be carrying diseases."

"Dragon diseases? Transmissible to other dragons that we've never actually seen on Earth?"

"Do you really want to take that chance? You've read the Pern books as well!"

"That's hardly relevant here."

"It's the only model we have."

"It's not the only model," Jemma said. "There must be at least--"

"Guys," Ward said. "Can you argue science fiction later? Right now, we've got a real...dragon...and we need to figure out what to do with it."

"I'll tell May to find us somewhere to land," Coulson said, looking tired. "We can't risk staying in the air when we don't know what that creature will do. If it suddenly decides to spit acid or flame and puts a hole...another hole in this Bus while we're in midair, we'll all be in trouble."

"Great!" Jemma said. She winced when Ward and Fitz glared at her. "I just meant...I've got more time to study it?"

Behind her, the dragon made a quiet croaky noise. Jemma turned in time to see it lift its head and blink sleepily before croaking again, this time adding a plaintive whine at the end.

"I think she's hungry," Skye said. "What do dragons eat?"

***

Jemma lifted out the two bowls Fitz had placed in the materials exchange hatch and took them over to the corner of the lab where Skye and the dragon had set up a nest. She sat down and balanced a bowl on each knee.

"Do you think she'll let us know what she wants to eat?" she asked.

Skye nudged the dragon and her little head popped up, mouth opening so she could taste the air with her tongue. For a moment she wavered, head turning between each bowl, before wobbling to her feet and lunging for the bowl on Jemma's right knee.

Jemma made a mental note: dragons are not vegetarians.

She put the bowl of lettuce and cucumber sticks on the floor and pushed the bowl of raw meat closer. The dragon plucked a piece up between her foreclaws and gulped it down without chewing. She made a satisfied chirrup sound and reached for another.

"I guess she knows what she wants," Skye said with a grin. "Is that the steak Ward bought before we left?"

"The one he was all excited about because he'd worked out how to grill on the Bus? I think it is."

"Huh. He's probably not going to be happy about that."

"It's for a good cause," Jemma said, watching the dragon swallow another small bit of meat. "Most newborns are ravenous when they're first born. Or hatched. We're lucky she waited for her own food and didn't start chewing on your fingers."

"She wouldn't do that," Skye said, stroking a gentle hand down the dragon's back and scratching between her wings. "Raisha knows who I am; she'd never hurt me."

Jemma had been wondering about that for a while. Now that the initial excitement had gone down, there were a few things she was curious about. "How do you know her name?"

"She told me," Skye said. She paused and frowned. "She...told me."

"How?"

"I don't know. The name was just there, in my head. And I knew it was hers."

"Just like you knew she was hungry and you know she won't hurt you?"

"I guess?"

Jemma leaned forward. "What made you come down to the lab? You didn't seem to be aware of what you were doing. Could you hear Raisha before she hatched?"

Skye didn't look up. All her attention seemed to be on picking out a piece of meat and holding it out for Raisha to take from her fingers.

"Skye?"

"I don't know," Skye said, so quietly Jemma could barely hear her. "One minute I was sleeping, the next thing...I had to come down here."

"You said you could hear something. Just before the egg hatched, you asked if I could hear something."

"Yeah...I did." Skye frowned, and Raisha turned away from the bowl, making an inquiring noise before rubbing her cheek against Skye's hand. It was an oddly affectionate gesture, as though the tiny creature could feel Skye's distress. "It wasn't like she was talking to me, not in words, but I could hear something kind of like...an echo in the background? It's hard to explain. You really couldn't hear it?"

Jemma shook her head.

"What do you think is happening to me?" Skye asked.

It was the question Jemma had been asking herself ever since Skye appeared outside the lab. She reached into the bowl and picked up a small chunk of meat, holding it out for Raisha. The dragon looked at it suspiciously for a moment before hunger overcame her reticence and she snapped her teeth around it, pulled it out of Jemma's fingers, and gulped it down.

"I don't know what's happening to you," Jemma said, holding out another bit of meat. "Until I've done some tests and scanned her, I don't even know what she is apart from the obvious."

"But if you had to guess?"

"I really don't think--"

"I'm not asking you to write me a paper on dragon-human interaction," Skye said, a ghost of a smile twitching at her lips. "All I want is your best guess. Your thoughts. I know you've got some theories. You always have theories; it's why you're so good at all this crap."

"I am?"

Skye snorted. "You know you are. Come on, just give me your thoughts. Nobody else is around to listen in and say anything if you turn out to be wrong. It's just the two of us."

Raisha chirped and knocked her nose against the side of the bowl impatiently.

"OK, it's just the three of us," Skye said, smiling down fondly.

She reached into the bowl at the same time as Jemma did and their fingers tangled for a moment. Jemma felt heat rush to her cheeks and hoped, vainly, that she wasn't blushing as much as she felt she was. She snatched her hand back quickly, and then had to suppress a wince for making it even more obvious that she was affected by simple finger contact.

When Jemma dared to look up, Skye seemed too preoccupied with feeding her dragon to notice the minor freak out. Jemma told herself she wasn't disappointed, not at all.

She swallowed and hoped her voice sounded normal. "I've never seen anything like this, but I think you might have bonded with Raisha somehow. It explains how you know her name, how you knew she was hatching...everything. I just don't know why you bonded with her. You didn't even touch the egg, nobody did."

"By bond you mean...telepathically."

"Maybe? It's the best explanation I've got right now."

Skye narrowed her eyes. "I've telepathically bonded with a baby dragon. I was wrong, Fitz was right: this isn't Jurassic Park. It's fricking Pern."

***

Holding a team meeting with a third of the team still quarantined in the lab was awkward. Normally, they'd all gather around the briefing table and send diagrams and maps flying at each other in a great collaborative brainstorm. The holotable was in the lab with Jemma and Skye, though they didn't have much to brainstorm with yet anyway.

So Coulson, Ward, Fitz, and May had all gathered just outside the lab doors, standing in a ragged line that reminded Jemma uncomfortably of troops preparing to assault a target. May's glower and Ward's frown didn't ease that impression.

Jemma stood next to Skye in front of the lab window. The dragon was asleep again, draped across Skye's shoulders with her tail wrapped around the top of Skye's arm for balance. She had nestled her head into the crook of Skye's neck, and she was snoring softly. Jemma was standing close enough for her arm to brush Skye's, and the tip of the dragon's tail sometimes tickled the inside of her elbow when Raisha twitched in her sleep.

Fitz couldn't seem to drag his eyes away from the creature. Or maybe the dragon was just an excuse to stare at Skye, which was something Jemma could sympathise with.

"What have you learned so far?" Coulson asked.

"She's carnivorous," Jemma said. "She ate around ten ounces of steak, but I don't know whether that was just because it was her first meal or if that's an indicator of her usual appetite. I'll need to observe her for a couple of days before I have some idea of her real requirements."

Raisha's belly had looked comically full by the time she refused a chunk of meat. Such a round, distended abdomen on the slim little creature had worried Jemma, until Skye laughed and said Raisha felt fine.

"She's been asleep for the last hour," Jemma continued. "That's probably normal behaviour. We see it in a lot of animals, particularly lizards."

"It's pretty common in some humans as well," Ward said, with a sideways glance at Fitz.

Fitz bristled. "Once. And it was a turkey sandwich. Turkey releases tryptophan which--"

"That's not scientifically proven," Jemma said.

"I'm just repeating what you said last Christmas."

Coulson smiled. "Aside from the effects of turkey, do you have anything else?"

"I've taken a few scans while she slept," Jemma said. "I'm still studying them, but I'm certain now that she's not related to any dinosaurs. Her bone structure doesn't match anything we've previously found. I can map some of her internal organs to similar structures in living creatures, but there are a couple of organs that I can't identify at all. I'd need to study her properly to work out what they do."

"You may not have that time," Coulson said. "We can't keep her."

"Sir--"

Coulson shook his head. "We're parked a few miles from Bordeaux. There's a SHIELD facility just outside Paris. As soon as you can confirm that it's safe to take her out of quarantine, we'll transfer her there."

"You can't do that," Jemma said.

"I can't?"

Jemma ignored the look Coulson was giving her. "No, sir, you can't. She's bonded in some way to Skye and I don't think we should risk separating them until we know what that means."

Skye had been unexpectedly quiet until now, but Jemma had felt her stiffen at the suggestion of taking Raisha away. The dragon made a snuffly sound and lifted her head, blinking sleepily for a moment before snuggling down into Skye's neck again. Jemma was slightly jealous that it got to do that.

"You can't take her," Skye said, in a flat, even tone. "If she goes somewhere, I have to go with her."

Coulson frowned. "You might not have a choice."

"At the moment, I'm the expert on dragons," Jemma said, "and until you find someone who knows more than I do, I'm recommending that we don't separate them. If Raisha is taken somewhere, Skye will have to go with her and so will I."

May's expression didn't change, but there seemed to be a slight softening around her eyes. "They're already sending an extra agent to help us out. We could ask him to bring some more meat, so we can keep the dragon fed until it's safe to move."

Coulson looked thoughtful for a long moment. He seemed to be having some kind of internal debate, and Jemma held her breath. She almost startled when she felt Skye's hand closing around hers, but she recovered and tried to look normal. Turning her hand so that Skye could weave their fingers together and hold on tight seemed like the right thing to do.

Or at least, that's the excuse Jemma gave herself.

"Fine," Coulson said. "I'll tell SHIELD we can't move the dragon for at least another twenty-four hours. They can tell their operative to stop at one of the markets to pick up some meat. Do you have any preferences?"

Jemma looked at Skye, raising an eyebrow inquiringly. Some of the tension was melting away from Skye's body, but she hadn't released Jemma's hand yet.

"I don't know," Skye said after a pause. "I don't think she's fussy yet. She definitely liked the steak, but it's not like she has anything to compare it to."

"I'll tell them to bring a selection, then," Coulson said with a small smile. "So she can develop her palate."

May rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything.

***

Jemma was making scientific notations on Raisha's sleeping patterns (watching Raisha sleep in a towel-lined box and noting all the adorable snuffly noises she made) when SHIELD's backup agent arrived. Skye had been dozing at the table next to Raisha's box, her head pillowed on her arms, and Jemma made a note to ask for permission to install a camp bed in the lab because getting trapped in here seemed to be turning into a regular thing.

Skye woke up when the Bus's ramp started to noisily descend and Jemma grinned at the red impression of Skye's watch on her cheek.

"What?" Skye asked.

"Nothing," Jemma said quickly.

Skye frowned and looked like she might be about to speak, but something outside the lab distracted her. Jemma turned in time to see Coulson walk into view and stop, facing away from the lab.

He just stood there for a long, long moment. She couldn't see his face, but his shoulders looked tense.

The ramp had finished its descent and a man was walking up it, silhouetted by the bright sunshine outside. He wasn't particularly tall, but his upper body was well muscled and he walked with a loose, graceful stride that was full of confidence.

Skye suddenly clutched Jemma's arm and dragged her down so they were both kneeling on the floor.

"Is that Hawkeye?" Skye hissed. "Is that actually Hawkeye walking onto our plane?"

Jemma knelt up so she could get a proper look over the sill of the lab window. The ramp was closing again and it was easier to see the man's features now that he wasn't backlit. He was dressed in standard black SHIELD tactical gear, the kind that Ward sometimes wore, and his eyes were hidden by a pair of sunglasses, but she recognised him.

"Clint Barton," she breathed.

Skye made an odd, triumphant noise and grinned. "Hawkeye is on our plane. Awesome."

"He used to work with Coulson," Jemma said.

Whispered, actually, because something about the tension in Coulson's shoulders and the way he was watching Barton prowl past the cars, patting Lola affectionately as he went, signalled to Jemma that this wasn't something they should interrupt. In fact, she wished they weren't restricted to the lab right now because they should probably leave and not witness whatever was about to happen.

"Barton," Coulson said.

Jemma winced. The switch to turn off the feed from outside the lab was on the wall by the window and she couldn't get to it without being seen. Skye's grip on her arm tightened, so she stayed in her awkward half-crouch and tried not to feel incredibly guilty about watching.

"Coulson," Barton said. He put down one of the bags he was carrying so he could pull off his sunglasses. "It's been a while."

"You're the agent they sent?"

"I was in the neighbourhood." A crooked smile twitched on his lips for a moment before vanishing. "Actually, Sweden. But that's almost in the neighbourhood, right?"

"I--"

"So here's the thing," Barton said. "They told me you were dead. And then, a couple of hours ago, they told me you weren't dead. That you got better. And they sent me here. Something about a dragon and needing backup and a shit ton of meat and I've got to ask myself. What the fuck?"

Coulson made a small, pained sound. "I would have told you if I could."

"Yeah, that's what I've been telling myself."

"It's true."

"So why am I being let in on the big secret now?"

"Director Fury owes me something," Coulson said. "I think he's trying to make amends."

"By sending me to help with your dragon problem?"

"Something like that."

"Oh."

They were silent for a long moment. Jemma felt deeply uncomfortable and she wanted to look away, but she couldn't make herself. Coulson's face was still turned away from her, but she could see Barton's expression. He looked confused and torn, and, maybe a little bit hopeful.

Eventually, Coulson sighed. "Do you want me to give you the grand tour? We should store that meat away and then we can talk in my office."

A small smile lifted the corners of Barton's lips. "That sounds like a plan. We should definitely talk."

Jemma didn't even dare to move until they were gone, and then she slumped on the floor with a relieved sigh.

Skye whistled quietly. "Wow. Coulson really does have a girl--or boy--in every port, doesn't he?"

"Skye!" Jemma hoped the heat she could feel in her face wasn't a blush, but she suspected it was. A bright, painful blush. "They're not...they probably...you really think they...?"

"That is not how to two people who just worked together say hello," Skye said. She paused thoughtfully. "Although, Coulson doesn't seem like the kind of guy who ignores regs and sleeps with a subordinate. So maybe they didn't actually sleep together, but I think they really wanted to."

"There were always rumours," Jemma admitted. "Stories about the things they said on comms, that kind of thing, but nothing else."

"Yeah. I think those rumours were probably true."

"Should we...do anything?"

Skye gave her an incredulous look and Jemma felt her blush intensify. "What do you want to do? Throw them a box of condoms and tell them to go for it?"

"Probably not?" Jemma said.

From above them, Raisha made a noise that sounded almost like a cough, and a moment later Jemma caught the smell of charred fabric. All thoughts of Coulson, Barton, and whatever they were doing flew out of her mind as she stood up and stared at Raisha.

The dragon looked up and coughed again. A tiny flicker of flame spat out of her mouth and singed a corner of the towel she'd been sleeping on. She crossed her eyes as she tried to look down her nose, and Jemma couldn't help laughing.


	3. Chapter 3

"Are you sure you should be in there with it?" Fitz asked. "And cuddling it?"

Skye rolled her eyes and Jemma shot Fitz the fiercest glare she could muster. The little dragon was back in Skye's lap, on a flame retardant blanket this time, and Skye was petting her scaly head. Raisha had coughed up one more spurt of flame, but there had been nothing else for the last hour. She'd looked confused and irritated by the sudden appearance of fire out of her mouth (and the disappearance of soft towels), and Jemma could kind of sympathise.

Some parts of growing up really sucked, even when they were expected. She probably would have been annoyed by surprise fire as well.

"She's safe," Skye said.

"The fire-breathing dragon is safe?" Fitz said incredulously.

"You make it sounds like she's going to suddenly turn around and turn the entire lab into a flaming pit of hell."

"And you're sure she isn't?"

Jemma sidled closer to Skye and Raisha, a visible sign of support, and patted her nose gently. Raisha's, not Skye's, even though Jemma would have been quite happy to pat Skye as well.

In another universe. Without an audience. Obviously.

"She isn't," Jemma said. "I don't think she's got the capacity to produce more flames than we've already seen. Maybe when she's full grown, she might be capable of it. But right now, her most serious casualty is going to be soft furnishings."

"Exactly how big is she going to get?" Ward asked.

Everyone had gathered for the team meeting, which Jemma thought was overkill. She suspected Barton felt the same way, judging by the way he kept glancing over at Coulson and almost immediately looking away. May hadn't said anything yet, but every now and again the corner of her mouth twitched as though she was fighting down a smile.

Good. At least there was one person on the Bus who thought that Fitz and Ward were being ridiculous about Raisha.

Coulson frowned. "Have you been able to estimate her potential growth rate yet?"

Jemma sighed. "She's only a few hours old. And so far, she's only eaten one meal. There isn't enough data for me to extrapolate from."

"I think she's hungry again," Skye said. "You know, if you wanted some more data."

"Excellent!" Jemma exclaimed. "I mean...uh...yes, she probably should be hungry by now. Would someone like to prepare some lunch for her?"

"How much does she need?" Barton asked.

"She ate a couple of steaks the last time," Ward said.

"Your steaks?"

"In a sense."

"Aw, that's tough, man," Barton said. "How does she feel about chicken?"

"Bring her some and we'll find out," Jemma said.

"I'll update SHIELD on her newest trick," Coulson said. "They'll need to make different arrangements if there's the potential that she could burn her way out of wherever we keep her."

"Arrangements that will take more time to prepare?" Skye said, looking hopeful.

"Probably."

Jemma pretended she couldn't see the small smile Coulson gave them as he herded everyone away from the lab.

"Think SHIELD will let me keep her?" Skye said, looking down at Raisha.

Jemma hesitated for a moment before pulling herself up to sit on the workbench next to Skye, nudging her shoulder and smiling when Skye nudged back. "I don't know. I think Coulson will try to do his best for both of you but..."

"Yeah." Skye didn't lift her head. Her hair had fallen forward to hide her face, but her hands were gentle as she scratched Raisha's neck. The dragon arched into her touch. "Do you think the bond--or whatever it is--will just go away if we're far apart? Or do you think it's the kind of thing where we'll die horribly if we try?"

"That's something we should probably test," Jemma said. "But until we're sure it's safe to leave the lab, I don't see how."

"I think we've already proved that me being twenty feet from her is fine."

"Twenty miles might be a different thing."

"Or it might not," Skye said. "I don't know which one I'm hoping for right now."

"Neither do I."

They sat quietly for a few minutes, watching Raisha shamelessly wriggle close to Skye and butt her hand whenever she stopped scratching the particular spots that Raisha liked best. She might be less than a day old, but the dragon had already learned how to manipulate people into petting her. She was a very intelligent creature to have figured that much out already.

The sound of footsteps brought Jemma's attention back to the world outside the lab. She looked up in time see Barton stop at the lab door, holding a bowl and frowning thoughtfully.

"How do I get this in to you?" he asked.

Jemma hopped down from the bench and showed him the exchange window. Barton grinned at her as he passed the bowl of chicken through and she nodded her approval at the neat, even chunks it had been cut into.

"I didn't want to choke the little guy," he said, "so I cut it up small. Is that OK?"

"It's perfect," Jemma said. "You must have a lot of experience with knives. In your line of work. I mean. Not that I think you'd use your fighting knives to cut up chicken for dragons or anything. Obviously you wouldn't. And I don't think you cut people up into little cubes, either. Although if you did, it might make disposing of the bodies easier."

Skye sighed, looking pained, and Jemma fled to her side and dipped her hand in the bowl so that she could focus on that instead of the blush that was burning her cheeks.

Smooth. Very smooth. She wasn't even attracted that way to him and she babbled.

Barton laughed. "Natasha would probably consider it, but I've always preferred long distance work. Cutting up bodies for disposal isn't very long-distance."

Jemma bit down on the urge to explain that she knew five different ways to dispose of bodies untraceably. It was probably a bad idea to admit that, even to someone in Barton's line of work. Ward's eyes had bulged worryingly when she'd mentioned it a few weeks ago.

"So, must have been a surprise when Coulson returned from the grave, right?" Skye said.

Jemma winced and didn't turn around to see Barton's expression. She held out a handful of chicken chunks again and watched Raisha prod and sniff them dubiously.

Barton coughed. "Yeah, kind of a surprise. Should have known it might happen."

"Why?"

"Weird shit happens around SHIELD," Barton said. "And Coulson's kind of...one of those guys. You know? The guys who always come through, even when it looks like everything's gone to hell and there's no way back. He comes through."

"You must have worked with him a lot," Skye said.

"I guess," Barton said. "Him and Natasha. We ran a few ops together." He paused and his tone sounded suspicious when he said, "Why?"

"Just wondering," Skye said, much too innocently. "I thought you might have some good stories on AC."

"He lets you call him that?"

"He makes this weird face when I do, but he's never actually told me to stop," Skye said.

Jemma snorted and she heard a choked sound from the other sound of the glass that was probably a badly stifled laugh. She risked a look over her shoulder to see Barton looking impressed.

"Either he likes you or he's plotting with Simmons to hide your body," Barton said.

Jemma smiled. "He did ask me once whether I kept certain chemicals on hand."

Skye gave him the finger and Raisha immediately rubbed up against it, begging to be petted.

"I don't think your dragon likes chicken," Barton said. "Want me to bring something else?"

Jemma put the chicken pieces she'd been trying to tempt Raisha with back in the bowl. "She liked beef. Maybe the chicken isn't red enough."

"I brought a huge slab of beef," Barton said. "Figured I might as well, since it's on SHIELD's dime. Want anything else while I'm getting it? You both look beat to hell. Have either of you slept since your dragon hatched?"

It was kind of nice the way he kept referring to Raisha as 'their' dragon, Jemma thought. Almost as though Raisha belonged to both of them, even though she was clearly bonding to Skye and Jemma was just a convenient extra pair of hands.

Now that Barton mentioned it, though, Jemma was feeling tired. Exhausted, actually, because she'd had no sleep for longer than she wanted to calculate. Skye looked almost as tired as Jemma felt, and she was still wearing the Henley and pyjama pants she'd been sleeping in when Raisha's hatching woke her. Suddenly all Jemma wanted was a cup of hot chocolate and eight uninterrupted hours in her sleeping pod.

"Could you ask someone to send us both a change of clothes?" Jemma asked.

"And maybe a couple of blankets and some pillows?" Skye added. "A nap would be great when Raisha's eaten."

Barton saluted with a quick touch of fingers to brow. "I'll get right on it as soon as Raisha has her steak."

Jemma smiled as he left, because this was the first time anyone outside the lab had actually used Raisha's name. Skye grinned as well and for a moment Jemma forgot what she'd been thinking about, because even when she was completely exhausted, Skye's smile was beautiful.

Then Raisha head-butted her arm imperiously and Jemma picked up a chunk of chicken again, which Raisha gulped down hungrily.

Skye poked Raisha's side. "Asshole."

***

Jemma decided a few hours later that she was definitely requisitioning some camp beds for the lab after this was all over. She and Skye had used a couple of blankets to cushion the floor, and the fire retardant blanket--with Raisha curled up on top--made an acceptably warm cover, but it was still uncomfortable.

Not so uncomfortable that neither of them slept, fortunately. They put together the makeshift bed without discussing whether they'd share, and Jemma was intensely aware of Skye's arm and hip against her back for approximately five seconds after they lay down.

Five seconds was all it took before she was fast asleep.

She wasn't sure how long she slept. Skye was still out, now curled on her side with her nose pressing into the back of Jemma's neck, and it took Jemma a minute to work out what had pulled her into consciousness.

Raisha butted her nose against Jemma's thigh again.

Somewhere outside the lab, Jemma could hear voices.

Either of those could have woken her, but Jemma thought it was more likely to have been Raisha's insistent, but gentle, nudges. She didn't know how long they'd been asleep. Probably a few hours, though, because Raisha had slept for a long time after her first feeding and it didn't seem likely her post-meal nap would have been significantly shorter this time.

Jemma propped herself up on an elbow and peered back at Skye, who showed no sign of waking yet. Raisha scrambled up to nestle against Jemma's chest and blow warm air against her neck. Warm, not hot, and Jemma hoped that Raisha wasn't going to have another flame attack with her nose pressing against Jemma's neck.

"Are you hungry?" Jemma said softly.

This was much easier when Skye was awake to tell them what Raisha wanted. The dragon just made a small chirrup sound into Jemma's hair and hooked one foreclaw into the collar of her shirt. As far as Jemma could tell, Raisha could be asking for a snuggle, or food, or telling her that she was about to explode.

The easiest option, obviously, was to feed Raisha and hope she'd guessed right. Jemma carefully eased herself away from Skye, pretending she couldn't feel Skye's instinctive grab for her, and rolled onto the cold floor. The movement was awkward because of the dragon attached to her shirt, but she managed, and then she carefully stood up with Raisha in her arms and walked to the lab window.

Fitz and Ward were sitting on the bonnet of one of the SUVs, staring down at a magnetic chessboard. It looked like Ward was winning, which explained Fitz's intense frown.

She knocked gently on the window and both men looked up.

"You're awake!" Fitz exclaimed.

Jemma put a finger over her lips and nodded back at Skye, who was curled up into a ball now but still looked deeply asleep. Ward jumped down from the car and approached the window without making a sound, even though his boots usually echoed on the metal deck. 

"What do you need?" Ward asked, in a quiet tone just above a whisper.

"Food for Raisha?" Jemma said.

Ward nodded and hurried away.

Fitz moved to the lab window, and his gaze drifted down to the dragon curled in Jemma's arms. She petted Raisha's neck absently and waited.

"You looked very cosy," Fitz said after a while.

"Cosy?" Jemma said.

"Yes. Cosy. Comfy. Cuddled up together with a fire-breathing dragon snoozing on top of you."

Jemma raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to say something?"

"I'm not trying, I'm just saying." Fitz nodded to where Skye was just visible in the blanket pile. "That looked very cosy."

"It was practical."

Fitz didn't look impressed. "How long have we known each other? You don't get comfortable like that with people. You don't hug, you don't air kiss, and you don't cuddle up to sleep with people. You don't even do it with me, and I'm your best friend."

Jemma glanced back nervously, but they'd been talking quietly and Skye's eyes were still shut. "It's Skye. She's a very tactile person and it made sense to share the blankets. It doesn't mean anything, not to me."

"And pigs might fly," Fitz said, looking far too amused for Jemma's comfort. "You're a terrible liar."

"Oh, shut up," Jemma said.

"Fine, I won't say another word about it." Fitz grinned. "You should say something. In that adorable way where you say too much and we all cringe. Maybe do it in private, though, for our sakes."

"You're a terrible friend."

"I'm the best friend you'll ever have."

Jemma sighed. "I know."


	4. Chapter 4

Early the next morning, Jemma had just finished washing up in the tiny bathroom attached to the lab and started to open the door, when she heard her name and froze.

Skye was standing at the lab window with Raisha in her arms. On the other side, Barton had found a small, bright yellow ball that he was bouncing off the glass in a random pattern. He seemed to be making a game of it, because Raisha reached out and hit the window at each impact point. The rhythmic thunk of rubber on glass would have covered their voices if they'd been speaking more softly, but apparently Barton and Skye hadn't expected Jemma to be so quick at cleaning up.

For a moment, Jemma debated with herself. The right thing to do would be to either close the door and not listen, or to announce her presence somehow.

Except...

It was human nature, Jemma reasoned. How many people, in all honesty, really stopped listening after they'd heard their name? She would feel horribly guilty about it after, she was sure, but the temptation to listen was too strong.

Jemma pulled the door so it was barely ajar and tried to breathe very quietly.

"--and it's nice," she heard Skye say. "You know?"

"Nice?" Barton said, sounding sceptical. "After all that, 'nice' is the best you've got?"

"I meant...argh, I don't know what I mean. It's confusing."

"Confusing, I know," Barton said. "I've got all the confusion I can handle right now."

"The whole coming back from the dead thing isn't going so well, huh?"

"It's a whole lot more complicated than I imagined. I mean, you spend months having all these feelings and figuring that having...him...come back to life would be the best thing ever. And then it happens, you get the dream, and it's nothing like you thought it would be."

"In a bad way or a good way?" Skye said.

She sounded curious, and Jemma could imagine the intense way Skye always looked when she was chasing an idea. It was easy to work out who 'him' was, and Jemma had to reluctantly concede that Skye might have been right about Coulson and Barton.

"Haven't decided yet," Barton said. "Has he told you anything about what happened to him?"

There was a long pause, and Jemma risked pushing the door a couple of inches out so she could peek through and catch a glimpse of Skye. She couldn't see Skye's face, but the hunched shoulders and Raisha's sudden decision to nuzzle into Skye's neck told her enough.

"I know bits," Skye said carefully. "Not...not all of it. I don't think he'll tell any of us all of it."

"That's more than he's told me."

"We kind of didn't get a choice," Skye said. "Some people did some things to make him remember. We found him while they were still working on him."

Jemma could just see part of Barton's face behind Skye's head. He'd stopped bouncing the ball now that Raisha had lost interest. For a moment, a look of sick comprehension clouded his eyes before a neutral mask seemed to fall into place.

"That sounds bad," he said quietly.

Skye nodded. "It was pretty bad. I guess the rest of it is worse."

"I should talk to him," Barton said.

"Yeah, you should."

They fell silent and Barton absently started bouncing the ball on the floor. Jemma hesitated, trying to settle on a plan for getting out of the awkwardness without betraying that she'd been listening. She took a slow, deep breath and silently pulled the door shut.

After a minute that felt much longer, she pushed the door open and let it slam back against the wall with a bang. She pretended not to notice Skye startling so badly she nearly dropped Raisha, making the dragon squawk as she grabbed for her. Barton barely twitched and Jemma had a moment's panic that he knew she'd been listening. But no, he had a reputation for staying calm through anything, so his lack of surprise had to be from that.

She pushed the door closed and smiled brightly. "Can I borrow Raisha for a few tests? It's been two days since she hatched; we should have enough data now to extrapolate her growth rate. Isn't she fascinating?"

Skye gave her a strange look and Jemma swallowed down the rest of the words that were trying to escape out of her mouth. Sometimes, being a bad liar was terribly inconvenient.

"I'll go and cut up some breakfast for her," Barton said with a crooked grin. "Can't have our girl getting hungry, can we?"

He bounced the ball against the window one last time, harder than before, and Raisha turned with a startled hiss. A jet of flame shot out of her mouth and made a sooty mark on the window. Barton swore and backed away quickly.

"Did you see that?" Skye exclaimed. "Totally deliberate, with aim."

"I saw," Jemma said. "She's already learned to control it."

Skye kissed Raisha's head and scratched the ridge over her eye that made her purr and arch into Skye's fingers. Jemma couldn't hear the words Skye murmured against Raisha's skin, but she could imagine them.

And wish Skye would whisper words against her skin one day.

***

Jemma was staring down into her microscope at a sample of Raisha's...blood, for want of a better word. It was nothing like any blood she'd ever seen before, but it was what circulated through Raisha's veins, so that was the word she would use when she wrote up her findings.

A touch on her shoulder made her look up, into Skye's smiling face. The smell of ginger and spice wafted from a mug Skye held out to her.

"Thought you might want to drink something that isn't caffeinated," Skye said. "You've been working for the last ten hours straight and all you've had is crazy strong tea. Your stomach must be hurting by now. I noticed you drink this stuff when you've been on a big tea kick, so I got Clint to bring some. For you."

Jemma accepted the mug and took a deep sniff of the steam, smiling gratefully because it was exactly what she needed. "Thank you."

"Not a problem," Skye said, with a casual shrug. She picked up a mug of her own and sipped, wrinkling her nose at the taste. "Yeah, wow, this stuff is...strong."

"Ginger is good for settling stomachs," Jemma said.

"I usually pick flat ginger ale."

"I find hot drinks soothing."

"Is that a British thing?"

Jemma smiled. "I don't think so. I've met plenty of Americans who can't function without a cup of coffee in their hands."

Skye took another sip of her tea. "I guess this stuff grows on you after a while. Or maybe it's just killing some nerve endings."

"You ate Ward's chili without breaking a sweat last week," Jemma said. "If anything has killed some nerve endings in your mouth, it wasn't this tea."

Skye chuckled and the sound seemed to wrap around Jemma like a warm blanket, releasing tension in her neck and shoulders she hadn't realised was there until it disappeared. The headache that had been threatening at the back of her eyes for the last few hours was already dissipating, and Jemma was sure it wasn't entirely due to the ginger tea. Something about Skye's presence was both soothing and exciting, in a strange combination that Jemma couldn't analyse. Skye made all the irritation and worry float away, and in their place there was happiness and a sharp, aching awareness of every movement and expression she made. 

Jemma flushed when she caught Skye looking at her over the rim of her mug. The warmth in Skye's eyes had become familiar over the months, but it was doing things to her insides that she wasn't used to.

Maybe spending days quarantined in a lab with Skye hadn't been the best idea.

She took a deep gulp of tea and tried to calculate whether the silence had become too awkward to move past yet. It didn't feel awkward, but Jemma wasn't a good judge. Or so she'd been told multiple times, usually by Fitz.

Skye's lips twitched into a crooked grin, and the air in Jemma's throat suddenly seemed too thick and sticky.

"Just so you know," Skye said, "since we're alone in here with nobody watching us for once, so I can say this. If I had to be stuck for days in quarantine with anyone, I'm glad it was with you."

Jemma swallowed, and her tongue seemed to stick to her teeth for a moment before she got her control back. "Really?"

"Really," Skye said. Her gaze dropped, and she seemed to be staring intently at a chip on the rim of her mug. "Just...it's been nice. Spending time. With you. I know we get lots of time together, but it's usually not like this. It's been nice. Really, really nice. Someone told me I should tell you, just so it's all out in the open."

"Tell me that you've enjoyed our quarantine?"

"Yeah." Skye lifted her eyes and Jemma's breath caught again. "It's been really great and I wouldn't have wanted to do this with anyone else."

"I'm glad it was you as well," Jemma said carefully.

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

Skye tilted her head, an unexpectedly shy expression making her eyes look softer than usual. "So, if I asked you out for a post-quarantine dinner later. Or something. Just the two of us. Would that be too much...usness?"

Jemma blinked. Huh.

"So you'd be asking me out on a--"

"Date?" Skye finished. "Maybe. If you wanted me to be. Or it can just be a dinner between friends who happen to have spent a few days trapped in a lab together and came out not hating each other."

Jemma didn't hesitate. "I'd like--"

She broke off at the sound of rapid footsteps, and a moment later Coulson stepped into view. His worried frown and the unhappy twist to his lips made Jemma's stomach sink.

"We have a problem," he said. "The containment facility is ready and SHIELD is sending a retrieval team for Raisha."

"I haven't finished all my tests," Jemma protested. "We still can't be sure it's safe to take her out of the lab."

"They've got a special pod and a portable airlock," Coulson said. "They'll be able to take her out of here and transport her to the facility without exposing her to the environment."

More footsteps announced Ward and Fitz's arrival, and from their expressions, Jemma guessed they already knew.

"Why the sudden hurry?" Skye asked.

Coulson rubbed his eyebrow tiredly. "Word got to them about Raisha's abilities. Someone got very excited about her ability to produce fire in a biological process and now they want to find out how she does it."

"I've been running tests," Jemma said, "but I can't work it out without...oh."

"Without what?" Skye said. "No, wait, let me guess. They'll need to cut her open to figure it out."

Jemma nodded, feeling suddenly cold. "I've been working from scans and blood work, but that doesn't give us a full picture. I'm not even completely certain about which organ the flames are produced from. But a dissection--"

"No!" Fitz exclaimed. "You can't dissect her. She's too small and adorable."

"I know that," Jemma said. "Why do you think I haven't done more than scan her? I can't cut into her just to find out how she ticks. It's not ethical."

She turned to look at the box on the holotable where Raisha was curled up with her fire retardant blanket, occasionally snuffling in her sleep. The dragon had grown just enough that the box was a tight fit now, and the tip of her tail hung over the edge.

"We're not going to have much choice," Coulson said. "I've got Barton trying to contact Thor, to see whether his people know about creatures like her, but the retrieval team will be here in thirty minutes. We'll have to hand her over."

"Yes, I can see that," Jemma said. "But we'll need to know where she is to rescue her."

"Rescue her?" Skye said at the same time as Coulson said, "Simmons?"

Jemma nodded. "We can't leave her with potentially unethical scientists. She's a living creature and she's self-aware. So we'll need to track her when she leaves here. Fitz? Do you have anything we can use? Something that's got good range but won't be picked up easily by anyone else?"

"I might have something you can implant," Fitz said, looking dubious. "It's still experimental."

"Good. Then get in here and help us. We need to get this done in the next twenty minutes." 

Coulson looked pained. "Fitz, Simmons, we can't just plan a rescue mission from our own people."

"They're not planning a rescue mission, sir," Ward said. "They're just making sure one is possible if we decide to rescue the dragon later."

"You agree with them?" Coulson said.

Ward shrugged. "You've got Barton contacting an Asgardian. Are you really not thinking about a rescue as well, sir?"


	5. Chapter 5

The transport arrived exactly thirty minutes after Coulson warned them about it.

Fitz left the lab twenty-five minutes after Coulson's warning.

Jemma wished there was time to splash cold water on her face in the five minute gap, but she had to check the tracker and prepare Raisha for transport. Skye watched everything with her arms crossed over her chest, making no effort to hide how unhappy she was. As far as Jemma was concerned, that was absolutely fine. None of them liked this, but Skye was the only person on the team who had bonded to Raisha so closely, and none of Jemma's protests against splitting them up was having an effect. She'd sent several formal protests to SHIELD with her reports, but it was as though they were all falling into a void the moment she hit send. The only feedback she'd had from the containment facility was a request for a more exact estimate of Raisha's firepower.

She suspected they hadn't been impressed with her answer, but she'd been completely honest: there was no way to accurately measure the little flicker of flame Raisha could produce. And absolutely no way to extrapolate from those tiny burst and work out what she'd produce when she was fully grown.

For a start, how was Jemma supposed to estimate Raisha's eventual size when she was only three days old?

Raisha seemed to sense that something was wrong, because as soon as Jemma finished checking the tracker implanted in her shoulder, she toppled off the bench and scurried across the lab. Her wings seemed to get tangled with her back legs so she bowled nose over tail a couple of times, but she reached Skye's feet before Jemma could catch her.

Damn, baby dragons could be fast when they're determined.

Skye crouched down as soon as Raisha tumbled against her ankles and lifted the creature into her arms. Raisha patted Skye's chin and made an enquiring noise.

"You're going away for a while and that makes me sad," Skye said. Her eyes looked damp, but there were no tears on her face. "I know you can't understand what I'm saying and this doesn't mean anything to you. But that's why I'm sad."

"Do you think she can feel what you're feeling?" Jemma asked.

Skye petted Raisha's back, rubbing soothing circles just below her wings. "Makes sense, doesn't it? I can feel a bit of what she's feeling. There's no good reason why that would be only one way."

Jemma nodded, walking across the lab to stand close to Skye. "It makes sense. And she certainly seems to react when you're experiencing strong emotion."

"Think it'll stop when she's gone?" Skye asked.

"I don't know." Jemma reached out, waiting for Skye's signal before resting hand lightly on Raisha's head. The dragon was nuzzling into Skye's neck now, seeking comfort from the familiar scent and the warmth of Skye's body. "Do you want to stop sensing her?"

"It might be easier if I do," Skye said, "but I don't want easy."

There was a noise outside the lab and they both turned at the same time. A familiar metal rattle signalled the ramp's descent, and it slowly revealed a large truck waiting outside. The setting sun reflected off the truck's shiny black paint, turning it into a blaze of deep red and rich orange.

"Red sky at night, shepherd's delight," Jemma murmured.

"Huh?" Skye asked.

"Nothing," Jemma said. "Just one of those sayings. It could be a beautiful day tomorrow, if the saying is right."

Two people wearing biohazard suits and face masks jumped down from the truck and hurried around to the back. They opened the doors and one of them jumped inside, presumably to help lift out the device they'd constructed to transport Raisha in.

"It's too late to just run away with her now, isn't it?" Skye said.

Jemma sighed. "We wouldn't get far, even if we'd started running the moment Agent Coulson told us they were coming. Two women on the run with a dragon would be a bit obvious."

"You would have run with me if I'd asked?"

"Of course."

Skye smiled and Jemma moved her hand so that her thumb was just brushing Skye's wrist where she was still rubbing circles on Raisha's back. They watched the progress of the suited people in silence. After a minute, Jemma noticed the rest of her team's arrival. Coulson stood at their head, his arms crossed and a frown wrinkling his brow. May's expression was unreadable, but Jemma thought she detected a slight narrowing of her eyes. Ward stood between her and Fitz, scowling even more fiercely than he usually did. 

Nobody said anything.

There was no sign of Barton. Jemma hoped he was still trying to contact Thor. If they knew a bit more about Raisha and where she'd come from, maybe they'd be able to figure out a plan. Or at least, work out whether they should be planning something and what their goal would be if they did.

The people in suits--technicians, unless Jemma was mistaken--wheeled something onto the plane that looked like a large plastic bubble. It looked like it had its own air supply and an airtight door in the side. They positioned the contraption near the lab door and hurried back to their truck. A minute later, they emerged with a portable airlock kit; a top of the line SHIELD issued unit that Jemma had a moment of envy for. She made a mental note to put it on her requisition list the next time they were at the Hub.

It took a while to put the airlock together and fasten it around the lab door, and Ward had to back the SUV out to make room. Coulson gave the technicians a glare that said he wanted to remind them of the consequences of damaging Lola, but Jemma guessed that he was too aware that antagonising them might be a bad idea right now.

Particularly if there was any chance that anyone on the team might be considering a rescue mission later.

Eventually, though, the airlock was in place and the technicians cycled through with their transport bubble.

"We're here for the alien," one of them said, his voice sounding nasal and slightly muffled through the mask.

"She's got a name," Skye muttered, but she kept her voice low enough that Jemma only just caught it.

"Is that it?" he said, pointing to Raisha.

Jemma bit her tongue as his partner stalked across the lab to where she and Skye stood. He was tall and thin, even under the bulky suit, and there was a cold, dispassionate expression in his eyes when he held out his hands for the dragon. Skye pulled Raisha closer to her body for a moment and Tall Guy raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"We will need all your records as well," the other technician said, his tone flat and official. "Doctor Simmons has sent us reports, but we require all the data she has gathered and every sample she has taken. We understand there are fragments of the egg?"

Skye glared at both technicians and Raisha made an angry, muttering sound. Jemma had a sudden, terrifying vision of what Raisha might do if the situation escalated. It could all end very badly for everyone, the dragon worst of all.

"The samples are all boxed up on my workbench," Jemma said, nodding toward the area she'd been working on. She used the moment's distraction to turn slightly, putting her shoulder between Tall Guy and Raisha and looking into Skye's face. Then she pinched the skin over Skye's wrist to get her attention and pointedly looked down at Raisha.

Skye gasped softly and when Jemma looked up again, there was understanding in her eyes. She nodded almost imperceptibly and bent her head to murmur soothingly against Raisha's head for a minute, calming the dragon, before taking a deep breath.

"Here," Skye said, pushing past Jemma and holding Raisha away from her body with obvious reluctance. "Look after her, OK? She'll pretend she doesn't like chicken if she thinks beef might be an option, but don't believe her. And she likes it if you scratch just below her head ridge."

Tall Guy took Raisha carefully, and held her out as far from his body as he could. "I'll make sure to note that down."

Raisha didn't protest at being put inside the transport bubble, but she made a loud shriek as the door started to close that was abruptly cut off when it sealed. Tall Guy took charge of the bubble and the other technician picked up the box of samples.

"Your data?" he said, as Raisha was wheeled into the airlock.

Jemma smiled sweetly. "Already transmitted to your lab and deleted from our systems, as requested."

His mouth was hidden behind his face mask, but Jemma was confident that he didn't return her smile. He just nodded as he walked to the airlock.

She thought his snide, "Thank you for your cooperation," was unnecessary.

Coulson followed the technicians and Raisha out to the truck with a blank expression on his face. He watched them leave and walked back up the ramp as soon as they were out of sight.

"Conference, thirty minutes," he said curtly and left.

"Guess we don't need to be in quarantine anymore," Skye said, her voice sounding dull and flat.

Jemma shrugged. "Probably not. I would have lifted the quarantine this morning if it hadn't been such a good delaying tactic."

"Thanks for trying."

"It didn't help much, did it?"

Skye squeezed her hand and, for a moment, Jemma thought she was about to get hugged. Actually, hoped she was going to get hugged, because Skye was a full-body hugger and Jemma remembered how good that felt. How safe, and warm, and cared for she'd felt each time Skye had hugged her over the months. It was almost as good as a kiss, when the hugger was Skye.

Skye seemed to shake herself and the moment was gone.

Jemma watched Skye wander away to pick up Raisha's towel and hold it to her face, and promised herself that someday soon, she would initiate a hug.

Very, very soon.

***

It was closer to an hour after the technicians took Raisha away before their conference started. Jemma and Skye both had to go through decontamination, just in case, and Fitz insisted on heating soup when they arrived in the galley shivering from the cold showers. May silently made some kind of herbal tea for them that finished the rewarming job the soup had started.

Coulson and Barton clattered down the steps from Coulson's office a couple of minutes after the rest of the team assembled around the table.

May's lips twitched a moment after they appeared and she suddenly became completely fascinated by something flashing on the table in front of her. A moment later, Skye bumped Jemma's shoulder and nodded in Coulson's direction, rolling her eyes when Jemma didn't immediately understand.

Coulson looked exactly the way he usually did, except...

Jemma stared. The edge of a red mark was just visible above his collar. And Barton seemed to be unable to keep a small, goofy grin off his face.

Oh.

So apparently that situation had been resolved successfully. Or at least, Jemma assumed it had been successful. She wasn't always great when it came to reading people, but she was fairly sure people didn't look like that when they were still unhappy and uncertain about each other.

She exchanged a smile with Skye and forced her attention back to the meeting.

"Barton has made contact with Thor," Coulson said.

"He should be here soon," Barton said, that smile escaping at the corners of his mouth again. "He's promised to be subtle and not draw attention, but he's not exactly an attention-free guy. We might need to throw up some kind of cover for him."

"What kind of cover?" Ward asked. "Exactly how disruptive can he be?"

A bright burst of white light briefly lit up every window Jemma could see. Before she'd finished blinking away the spots, a clap of thunder seemed to roar directly overhead with another, even louder, following almost immediately. Despite its weight, the Bus rocked slightly as wind buffeted around it.

"That kind of disruptive," Barton said, raising his voice to be heard over another boom. "Think anyone'll believe it's a freak meteorological event?"

"Yeah, no," Skye said. "Pretty sure nobody'll believe that. Not unless they've been living under a rock for the last couple of years."

Barton sighed. "Guess we'll have to hope they're looking the other way, then."

"How many people see a freak thunder storm and think 'Asgardian', anyway?" Jemma said before she could make her mouth stop.

"How many people would assume the Asgardian is here to consult on a baby dragon?" Fitz said. "That might be a more relevant point. He could be here for anything."

Skye nodded, a thoughtful look in her eyes. "He really could be here for anything. Like, maybe, rumours going around on social media about some kind of glowing stick with weird powers?"

"You can do that?" Barton asked.

"Give me two minutes and I can." Skye pulled out her cell--probably one of the illegal burner phones she wasn't supposed to carry anymore--and began typing quickly. "Post in the right hashtags, you can build up a rumour in minutes. It'll be a flash thing, gone in a few hours, but hopefully it'll be enough to convince any SHIELD bosses watching our location that Thor is crashing around for other reasons and just happened to find Raisha while he was here."

"Good enough," Coulson said. "I'll go and greet him."

"Do you want me to--" Barton started to say.

"No," Coulson said. "It's something I should do."

Jemma wondered whether she was the only person who noticed that Coulson's hand brushed over Barton's wrist as he left. Skye's attention was all on her phone and Fitz was looking over her shoulder, but Jemma suspected the moment hadn't escaped May and Ward's attention. They were too good at the impassive agent facade to show they'd noticed, of course, but Ward's sudden interest in Barton's bow, which was propped in a corner, seemed too convenient.

Particularly after Jemma had heard him mutter about showy archers who couldn't be 'just' snipers only a day ago. 

She watched Skye carefully while they waited, but she didn't seem to be suffering any side-effects from Raisha's removal. If distance was causing any problems with their bond then Skye was hiding it better than Jemma would have imagined.

It took a few minutes for Coulson to return. He was followed by a huge, muscular blond man wearing armour and a long red cape. Thor's broad grin seemed to fill the room with joy and Jemma found herself smiling even though she didn't know what she was supposed to be happy about.

She wondered whether Thor's moods were this infectious when he was depressed. It wouldn't be pretty if they were. Hopefully she'd never need to find out.

Thor clapped a hand on Barton's shoulder, making him stagger.

"Why did you not tell me that he lived?" Thor asked. "It is wonderful news and should be celebrated!"

Barton shrugged. "I didn't know until a couple of days ago, and it wasn't my news to tell. Figured we'd tell everyone in person."

"I will keep the secret, but I cannot promise it will stay hidden for long."

Coulson nodded. "I'll make sure they know as soon as all of this is over. Now, what can you tell us?"

"Do you have any photographs of your dragon?" Thor asked.

"I had to wipe everything," Jemma said. "We had orders."

Fitz shook his head. "Not everything. I took a couple of pictures while you guys were sleeping." He pulled out his phone and swiped the screen, putting it down and sliding it across the table when he'd found the photo. "Does that look familiar?"

Thor spun the phone so the screen was the right side up and studied the image for a long moment. "There are records of creatures like this. They were usually shown as much larger."

"She's just a baby," Skye said defensively. "She'll grow."

"We did not record their exact dimensions," Thor said thoughtfully. "The last one died centuries ago and I have never seen any juveniles. I only saw one of the old ones, when I was a small child, shortly before it died."

"But you think this might something your people have experience with?" Coulson asked.

"I believe so," Thor said. "They came from Muspelheim originally, one of the nine realms, and your word 'dragon' is an apt descriptor. However, most of them were hunted when the realms were crueller places, and what remained slowly died despite all attempts to aid them. Some say that they died from the heartbreak of what was done to them, but my father believed that there were too few left for breeding to remain viable."

"Were they sentient?" Ward asked.

"In their own way, yes," Thor said. "They could communicate with those they chose to communicate with and their society was said to be advanced, even though their physical shape was not well-suited to the delicate requirements of technology. Their world, however, is inhospitable to most races and even they had to eventually abandon it for easier climates. That is when they began to be hunted, by races who did not understand what they were. My own people were not blameless in this, although we did fight to end the hunting once we realised what they were."

"She's smart," Skye said. "She figured shit out way before any of us thought she would. Raisha even managed to control her flamey breath pretty damn fast."

Thor raised an eyebrow. "She told you her name?"

"Yeah," Skye said slowly. "When she hatched. I just kind of...knew it."

"And has she communicated other thoughts to you?"

"In a way."

"What does she think at this moment?"

Skye frowned and seemed to focus inward for a long moment. "She's cold and alone. Sad. But not scared and nothing has hurt her yet."

"That is good," Thor said. "That is very, very good. If she were hurt or afraid, she would be dangerous to everyone."

"Then we'll have to rescue her," Skye said. "For everyone's safety."

Thor sighed. "She would not require rescuing if she hadn't been taken so young. The records say that when these creatures learn to use their wings, they can not only fly: they can create portals and paths between the worlds. She would be able to leave her captors, no matter how they tried to cage her."

"She'd literally be a self-rescuing dragon?" Skye said with a small grin. "My girl is awesome."

Thor threw back his head and laughed, the sound filling the room with warmth and making Jemma's heart feel lighter. "Indeed. She's an amazing creature. That her egg could remain undisturbed for so long on this world is a miracle indeed."

"Are we actually planning to go up against SHIELD and steal a dragon?" Ward asked.

"I plan to free her, no matter who holds her," Thor said sternly. "SHIELD cannot stand against me when I have Mjolnir in my hand."

A small smile lurked in the corners of Coulson's mouth. "Obviously, I can't sanction a rescue mission from our people. But if anyone wants to help Thor on their own time, I won't stand in their way. You're all officially on leave for the next...twelve hours?"

May shrugged. "I've started an automatic diagnostic routine on the Bus. We won't be able to fly anywhere for a few hours so we might as well all get out and stretch our legs."

"And if we accidentally stretch our legs in the same direction Thor is heading, who's going to stop us?" Barton said.

Ward groaned. "You're all insane."

"But you're coming anyway, right?" Skye said.

Jemma didn't bother to hide her smile when Ward rolled his eyes and gave in.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a knock on Jemma's pod door just as she finished changing into clothing appropriate for rescuing dragons. She pressed a button and smiled when the door opened to reveal Skye waiting outside.

Skye was wearing the leather jacket and black jeans she'd worn a few times when she was trying to look like a tough and competent SHIELD agent instead of a trainee. It was a look that Jemma really appreciated, particularly because Skye's usual look included shirts that covered her ass. These particular jeans were very kind to Skye's figure in ways Jemma sometimes found distracting, but always enjoyed.

And now she really needed to stop thinking about Skye's jacket. And her jeans. And her ass.

Jemma hoped she wasn't smiling manically as she stepped back to let Skye into the pod. The door slid shut behind Skye and, by unspoken agreement, they both sat down at opposite ends of Jemma's bed so they weren't hunched uncomfortably in the tiny space.

"So, never thought I'd go rescuing a dragon with the god of thunder," Skye said with a crooked grin. "Actually, never thought that would be a sentence I'd ever need to use. How are you doing?"

"Me?" Jemma said, trying not to wince when her voice cracked. The room seemed much warmer than it had been a minute ago. "I'm fine. Just fine. We're plotting to steal a dragon from the agency that employs us. I've never been better."

Skye chuckled. "Yeah, this has all got a bit--"

"--Crazy? Weird? Out of control?"

"All of the above." Skye pushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ears, a gesture Jemma had noticed her make before when she was nervous about something. "Are you going to regret doing this? Because none of you have to stick with me on this. If it's going to end up killing your careers--or actually killing you, I hadn't thought about that before--then I don't want you guys getting into trouble over one very cute dragon."

Jemma leaned forward and put her hand on Skye's where it rested on Skye's knee. "I'm not backing out. I don't think any of us would, but I won't. I can't. I'm with you all the way on this."

Skye blinked, her eyes looking shiny and wet, and she opened her mouth, but no words emerged. It looked like she was at a loss for them, for the first time since Jemma met her. No words came to Jemma, either, and it could have been such an awkward, strange moment except...

Jemma leaned forward, prompted by an instinct she didn't know she had before, and Skye moved at the same time. Her hand was behind Jemma's neck as they lurched toward each other and their lips collided into a hard, inelegant kiss. It wasn't how Jemma had imagined their first kiss would be, when she'd allowed herself to imagine at all. They were both off-balance and Jemma froze in place, because if she moved, she would topple forward and fall onto Skye.

As first kisses went, it was a bit of a disaster.

Jemma hadn't felt this awkward about a kiss since Amy Pearson when she was fourteen, hiding in the caretaker's cupboard at school and desperately terrified that she'd accidentally swallowed one of the elastic bands from Amy's braces.

She carefully pulled back slightly at the same that Skye did, but she didn't retreat entirely. She didn't want to.

Their lips were only a couple of inches apart. Jemma could feel the puffs of warm air across hers as Skye said, "Do you want to try that again, with less falling?"

"Yes," Jemma said, quickly in case Skye changed her mind.

Skye didn't change her mind; she shuffled forward along the bed without taking her hand away from Jemma's neck. Her fingers had somehow become twined into Jemma's hair and Jemma couldn't remember when that happened.

Jemma only had to move a small distance to kiss Skye, and their second kiss was nothing like their first. It started out gently this time, touching together cautiously, and Skye's lips were as soft and warm as Jemma had imagined. She closed her eyes, trying to memorise the way the kiss felt, so she'd have this moment somewhere in her mind forever.

Skye's lips parted beneath hers, and Jemma licked inside her mouth, tasting mint and sweetness on her tongue. Someone sighed, but Jemma couldn't tell who because her focus had narrowed to the warmth of Skye's mouth and the fingers pressing tight into the skin on the back of her neck. 

Jemma wasn't aware of the moment when she released Skye's hand. She was dimly aware that she must have, because she suddenly had two hands free to slide around Skye's waist at the same time that Skye wrapped an arm around hers and pulled her closer.

Except pulling closer turned into falling onto Skye, who tumbled backward and landed mostly on the bed, with Jemma's stack of pillows protecting her head from hitting the wall. Skye laughed against Jemma's lips, sending puffs of warm breath across Jemma's cheek. It was such a good, happy sound, Jemma didn't want it to end, and for a while they were kissing and giggling into each other's mouths at the same time. Jemma's body seemed to fit perfectly against Skye's, and she wished her hands weren't trapped under Skye's back, because she really wanted to trace the shape of Skye's hips and sides through her t-shirt.

Skye didn't have that problem; her hand was warm when she slid it under the hem of Jemma's shirt to rest on the patch of skin at the small of her back. Jemma shivered as Skye's fingers began stroking gently there, sending warm tingles through her body that made the heat building low in her gut throb hotter.

"So, we got interrupted before you answered my question earlier," Skye said after a while, punctuating the words with gentle kisses along Jemma's jaw. Her lips brushed Jemma's ear when she added, as if Jemma needed reminding, "Do you want to go out to dinner with me when this is over?"

Jemma lifted up slightly so she could look down into Skye's flushed face. There was a hint of something--uncertainty--in Skye's eyes that made Jemma's chest ache. The image of Skye, hair spread across the pillows and her lips red and wet from kissing, was something that would be burned into Jemma's mind for a long time. Maybe forever. The question didn't need a thought before answering.

"Yes, I want to go out to dinner with you," Jemma said, trying to look as solemn as she could. "I don't usually kiss people I don't want to go out with."

Skye grinned. "Great. I mean, I figured my odds were good if we were kissing. But sometimes people surprise me, and I didn't want to assume this meant something it didn't."

Jemma wrinkled her nose. "You thought I might be the type of person who kisses people and doesn't mean it?"

"You never know," Skye said gravely. "Some people just want sex without the strings attached."

"I'm a strings attached kind of person."

"Yeah, I'm kind of getting that."

Jemma smiled and leaned down for another kiss, a careful exploration of Skye's mouth that left her breathing hard when they broke apart.

She froze when someone laughed loudly as they passed the pod door. It sounded like Thor's voice, booming and merry.

"Guess we should get out there," Skye said, when it was quiet outside again.

"We've got a dragon to rescue," Jemma said.

"Yeah. Dragons to rescue and fair maidens to feast on; my life is getting weird, but kind of awesome," Skye said.

Jemma rolled her eyes and said, "I'm pretty sure I'm not a fair maiden in any sense of the words."

"Really?" Skye raised an eyebrow and the only way to describe her expression was 'leering hopefully'. "Now that sounds promising."

"I can't imagine what you mean," Jemma said with a fond smile.

***

The signal from the tracker implanted under Raisha's skin was weak, but its location corresponded with the SHIELD facility a few miles outside Paris. It was a couple of hours before dawn when the team made their way through a wooded copse not far from the perimeter. They'd left the SUVs at the side of the road on the other side of the trees, trying for a stealthy approach instead of the full frontal assault Thor had advocated.

Jemma had the strong suspicion that all of Thor's plans usually started out with a full frontal assault, although he'd seen the problems with that plan almost as quickly as May. He was more adaptable than she'd expected, though, and the plan they were using now had been a collaborative effort between him, May, and Coulson. Ward had offered a few suggestions, but most of his contribution had been helping Fitz pack the munitions.

Everyone was carrying Nite Nite guns instead of more lethal weaponry. It made them feel slightly better about attacking one of their own facilities. At least they wouldn't risk killing or seriously injuring their own people.

Hopefully.

May had made an unimpressed sound when Skye had pointed that out. Jemma didn't know what to make of it, so she tried to put it out of her mind.

They paused behind a screen of low brush. Just enough moonlight slipped between the leaves for Jemma to make out the shapes of her team mates. If it had been a moonless or cloudy night, they would have been in real trouble.

Thor was keeping his cape wrapped tightly around him, so the moon didn't reflect off his armour, and he moved surprisingly soundlessly for a man wearing so much metal. Everyone else was dressed all in black, even Coulson, and by unspoken accord, they'd all removed every SHIELD patch and insignia from their gear.

Adrenaline and worry sent uncomfortable flutters through Jemma's stomach, a constant reminder of just how much she hated breaking rules. This wasn't just accessing a few files this time: she was actively planning to attack a SHIELD facility.

At least she'd had the excuse that shooting Sitwell had been an accident the last time she sort of broke into a SHIELD facility.

Someone touched her arm and Jemma almost jumped out of her skin, her heartbeat thundering in her ears so loudly she nearly didn't hear a softly whispered, "You OK?"

It was Skye; of course it was Skye. Jemma leaned against her shoulder for a fraction of a second, and Skye's hand squeezed her arm and withdrew.

"Is everyone clear on the plan?" Coulson said, his voice pitched low so it wouldn't carry far.

There was a chorus of muted yeses, even Thor managing to keep his response so quiet Jemma barely heard it.

"Remember, plausible deniability is the key," Ward said. "Masks on, and nobody takes theirs off until we're clear."

Jemma pulled on the black ski mask she'd been carrying and the dark shapes around her did the same. She immediately felt as if she was being stifled, her breath making the wool over her nose and mouth damp and uncomfortable. She tried to ignore the sensation; the masks and the plain clothes were the only protection any of them would have if SHIELD tried to find out who had taken Raisha.

That, and the clever work Fitz and Skye had done to the Bus's security videos to make it look like none of them had left all night.

"On my mark," Coulson said.

Jemma shifted her feet, ready to run on the signal, and patted the holster strapped to her thigh to reassure herself the gun was still there. She was standing close enough to feel Skye doing the same, which was oddly comforting. At least she wasn't the only one feeling half-terrified right now.

"Mark," Coulson said.

***

The team managed to sneak through the perimeter and reach one of the doors into the main building without any alerts sounding. Jemma could almost see the report Coulson was probably mentally composing about the security holes they'd exploited.

It was a bit unfair. SHIELD hadn't designed their facilities with the assumption that they'd be broken into by some of their best assets and an Asgardian god. Even if this had been one of their highest security locations, that probably hadn't been a scenario they'd built for.

Of course, none of them could actually send a report without revealing they'd been the ones breaking into the base. Jemma suspected there would be some mysterious white papers filtering through the SHIELD reporting system over the next few months, anyway. It would be irresponsible not to make the attempt.

She had to stifle a hysterical giggle at that thought, because right now they were being as irresponsible as it was possible to be without actively leading a mutiny.

Actually, did this count as a mutiny? She didn't disagree with SHIELD's leadership and policies in general, only their plans for Raisha. One tiny little breach of the rules to prevent a huge injustice to a potentially sentient creature couldn't be that bad. Jemma was uncomfortably aware that she was trying to rationalise the kind of rule breaking she'd always tried to avoid over the years.

Her insides felt uncomfortable and squirmy. She wasn't a natural rule-breaker.

The Coulson-shaped figure gestured and he melted away into the shadows with three other dark shapes. Half the plan depended on Barton, Ward, and May creating distractions in another part of the compound to draw as many guards as possible out of Thor's path. Coulson had sighed and vowed to supervise their efforts so they didn't get too destructive.

After seeing the quantities of explosives that Ward and Barton had surreptitiously added to their packs, Jemma thought he had a point. She'd read enough reports about their ability to create mayhem at an individual level: the prospect of them combining their talents was absolutely terrifying. Between the three of them, they could probably level the Triskellion if they put their collective minds to it.

As soon as Coulson's small team was on their way, Fitz and Skye set to work on the door. They only needed a minute to hack the locks, and Fitz counted down with his fingers before pushing the door open to allow Jemma and Skye to slip inside.

Movement at the corner of Jemma's eye caught her attention. She turned and fired on instinct, and had to swallow down a triumphant yelp when her shot hit its target and a guard toppled over soundlessly to slump against the wall. A soft thump behind her signalled that Skye had been just as lucky with a second guard and Jemma grinned broadly before remembering that Skye wouldn't be able to see her expression under the mask. She returned Skye's fist bump instead.

Thor looked disappointed when he saw the unconscious men, and Fitz refused to look down when he followed Thor inside. The click-buzz of the lock re-engaging as the door swung shut behind him made Jemma shiver. It sounded depressingly final; a signal that they were committed to their actions now and retreat would be harder than pressing on. The corridor they were now standing in didn't help that impression. Dim, industrial strip lights reflected off dull grey walls and a concrete floor, and the air smelled musty when Jemma took a deep breath.

Fitz shrugged out of his pack so he could pull a tablet out.

"Which way now?" Jemma asked.

He muttered under his breath when the contacts in his gloves didn't work as accurately as bare skin did, but he didn't take them off. After a few impatient taps at the screen, he held the tablet out so everyone could see. It showed a plan of the building, white lines on a dark background, and he adjusted the zoom with a quick flick of his fingers.

"She's being held here," he said, pointing at a blue dot near the middle of the building. "It looks like a multi-purpose hangar. They must have adapted it when they read the reports, because they've got six smaller labs in this building, and none of them seemed to be in use according to the data we hacked earlier." He pointed to four green dots clustered near the building's perimeter. "This is us."

"We've got a lot of ground to cover," Skye said.

"Then we'd better get started," Fitz said.

Thor grinned and patted Fitz's shoulder, making him stagger. Jemma stifled a nervous giggle and said a silent thank you for the ski mask that covered her smile.

Fitz led the way with Thor--and Mjolnir--at his left shoulder. Jemma and Skye brought up the rear, and Jemma couldn't help looking over her shoulder every few seconds. She had to make herself relax her grip on the Nite Nite gun after a couple of minutes when her hand threatened to cramp up.

They'd turned three corners without meeting anyone, when Fitz swore softly and tapped his tablet screen.

"What's wrong?" Skye asked sharply.

"I've lost the signal," Fitz said. "They must have found the tracker and deactivated it."

"Do you still have her last location?" Jemma asked.

"Assuming they don't move her, we're fine," Fitz said.

Thor frowned and shot Skye a look that Jemma couldn't interpret.

"Is your bond to the dragon still strong?" he asked.

Skye hesitated for a moment before saying, "I can still feel her."

"Can you feel which direction the sense of her comes from?"

"I don't...wait." Skye turned slowly on the spot with her eyes closed. "Yes, I can feel it. She's that way."

The direction she pointed in was around forty-five degrees off the corridor they were following, but Fitz nodded when he compared it to the map and Raisha's last location.

"She's still in the hangar," he said.

"Then that's where we're going," Skye said.

They set off again, moving faster this time, and Jemma was amazed at how quietly Thor could move in his armour. Her shirt felt sticky and damp against her skin and her Kevlar vest dragged at her shoulders, but Thor looked as fresh as he had when he arrived on the Bus.

It had to be an Asgardian thing.

The corridor they'd been following met another at a T-junction and Fitz signalled they would turn right. There hadn't been any sign of guards since they broke in--possibly SHIELD hadn't expected anyone to get this far--but they'd only gone a couple of paces down the hallway when a door opened ahead of them.

Jemma's stomach dropped and she froze. Three feet in front of her, Fitz did the same, and Skye stopped just before she ran into his back.

A man wearing a dark SHIELD jumpsuit walked out of the door and Thor immediately ran forward. The fight was brief--two punches and one solid backhand from Thor's fist had the guy flat on his back without a single return hit. Thor grinned and bounced on his feet when it was over, as if the chance to fight something had improved the whole adventure in his estimation.

"This base is--"

A blaring alarm cut Thor off mid-sentence and he glared up at the ceiling. Fitz yelped and almost dropped his tablet.

"I guess the others have got their diversions going," Skye said, raising her voice to be heard over the din.

Jemma checked her watch. "Right on schedule. We need to get to Raisha."

Fitz nodded and checked his map. "Has she moved?"

Skye shook her head. "She's scared and angry, but it's still coming from the same direction."

"We need to hurry, then," Fitz said. "We've got a schedule to keep."

They broke into a jog this time, and Fitz led them confidently through two right turns and a left. Four men in SHIELD tactical suits fell to Thor's fists, and he barely paused each time he took someone down.

Jemma felt slightly pathetic that she never had time to aim her weapon before Thor knocked the guards out.

They rounded a corner and Fitz said, "The hanger is just ahe--...damn."

Four soldiers still guarded the hanger door. Jemma couldn't see their faces behind the plastic shields covering them, but the momentary pause before they opened fire told her they hadn't expected anyone to get this far.

Or perhaps they hadn't expected a large Asgardian in full armour. That could also be a bit upsetting for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, their surprise only lasted for a fraction of a moment; barely enough time for Jemma, Skye, and Fitz to scurry back around the corner to take shelter. Gunfire echoed along the corridor and Fitz swore loudly, clapping a hand against his shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Jemma asked.

"Just a graze," Fitz said quickly. His ski mask hid the colour of his face, but he didn't stop clutching his shoulder. "Flesh wound, I'll be fine. Help Thor."

Jemma nodded and shuffled to peer cautiously down the hallway. Skye was immediately at her side. The four guards sprayed another round of bullets, and Thor roared and ran toward them. Sparks flew off his armour and the walls around him, metallic dings echoing through the air, but Jemma saw him falter between strides before catching himself. One bullet, at least, had penetrated between the plates protecting Thor's body, and his pace was slowing.

Jemma sucked in a harsh breath and sighted down the hall, trying to find a target around Thor's moving body. She'd heard Ward lecture Skye a couple of times about handguns being less reliable than rifles, and she'd never been the kind of crack shot he was.

Her first shot glanced off a wall harmlessly. Skye's shot, over her head, hit a fluorescent light and shorted it out.

Both of their next shots found their marks, on the leftmost soldier. He staggered and collapsed against the wall just as Thor finished his run and collided with two of his colleagues.

The shooting stopped, which Jemma took as her cue to run like hell down the hall so she could try to help. Rapid footsteps behind her sounded like Skye's. Out of the corner of her eye, Jemma could see Thor fighting two guards at once. The remaining soldier seemed to be trying to aim a shot without accidentally killing his friends. His attention was all on the main fight, and he didn't look up to see Jemma until the last minute.

Jemma fired almost at point blank range and dropped her target.

Skye whooped happily and Jemma grinned at her, even though she wouldn't see it, as Thor threw both of his guards into a wall. They fell to the floor in a clatter of Kevlar and dropped weapons and they didn't get back up.

"Now that was a worthy fight!" Thor shouted, a broad smile lighting up his face.

Jemma knelt between the men and felt for pulses, breathing a sigh of relief when she found steady ones in both of them. "They'll be fine."

Skye shrugged. "Do we really care?"

"I care," Fitz said, jogging slowly down the corridor to them. He was still holding his shoulder. "We're not supposed to be killing our own people here, remember?"

"Can you get this door open?" Skye asked, ignoring his comment. "Raisha's in there and she's getting frightened. All the gunfire unnerved her. I think an unnerved fire-breathing dragon is probably a bad thing. "

Fitz carefully took his hand away from his shoulder, and Jemma was dismayed to see how much blood covered his palm and fingers. His black jacket was shiny under the remaining lights. "Um, I might need a hand." 

"That's not minor," Jemma said. "I need to--"

"There's no time," Fitz said sharply. "Schedule, remember? No time for you to do anything." He dug in his pocket and produced a small, silver box. "Someone needs to attach this to the door's number pad and hold down the green button until the door opens."

Skye grabbed for it before Jemma could move. "I've got it." 

She fitted the box into place carefully and pushed the button. Numbers flickered on a six-digit LED readout, too fast for Jemma to read. After a few seconds the first one held steady, an eight, and the other five kept flickering. It was just like something out of James Bond, and Jemma had a feeling she knew where the design ethic for this little toy came from.

Sometimes Fitz could be a little silly when he got tinkering with gadgets.

She ignored the progress of the electronic lock-pick, focusing instead on pulling out the odds and ends of first aid equipment she'd hidden in the pockets of her combat trousers. Blood was seeping between Fitz's fingers; far too much for Jemma's comfort. She ripped a big piece of gauze out of its sterile packaging and glared at Fitz until he took it. He held it in place while she fished a bandage out of her jacket pocket.

"Jemma..." Fitz started to say.

Jemma snorted, pushed his hand aside, and began winding the bandage around his arm to keep the gauze in place. "It's no good us rescuing Raisha and having to leave you behind because you bled out on the floor."

She pulled the bandage as tight as she could, trying to apply pressure without cutting off circulation to his arm. Fitz heaved a small sigh, but there was an exhausted quality to it that Jemma didn't like at all.

"We're in," Skye said.

Jemma quickly tied off the bandage and stuffed the paper wrappers in her pockets. "This is all I can do here. Try not to get any more holes in you."

"There are three heat signatures inside," Fitz said, ignoring her completely as he tapped at his tablet. "I can't tell whether it's three guards or two scientists and a dragon."

"I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for the second option," Jemma said.

Skye handed the lock pick back to Fitz and pulled out her Nite Nite gun. "And I'm going to be ready for option one." 

"I believe it would be safer if your dragon is not further antagonised," Thor said. "The second option is the safer."

Jemma was momentarily startled at the idea of Thor hoping they wouldn't have to fight, but the thought was chased out of her head by the door opening with a quiet swoosh. She drew her Nite Nite gun and moved to Thor's shoulder, Skye flanking him on the other side. Fitz sensibly--for once--stayed back and took cover just in case.

It was the second option.

Two scientists in white hazmat suits were standing next to a familiar transparent bubble, and they both raised their hands as soon as Thor stepped into the hangar. One of them was easily recognisable from his build and stance, and Jemma smiled fiercely when she took out Tall Guy with one shot.

The other scientist tried to run and Skye's shot went wild, flashing uselessly off the floor a couple of feet from him. Thor chased him down in a few huge bounds and grabbed his upper arms.

"This creature is the property of no one," Thor said.

The hazmat suit's helmet bobbed back and forward, as though the technician inside was nodding his head vigorously. Jemma suspected he was too terrified about being held a foot off the ground by a huge Asgardian to even think about arguing.

"We must tie you up, but we promise not to harm you," Thor said.

There was a terrified squeak from the scientist and his helmet bobbed again.

Jemma pretended not to see Thor dragging the hapless man across the floor, and she really didn't want to know where he found a length of electrical cable to tie the scientist up with. She was far more concerned with helping Skye to open Raisha's cage. The little dragon practically jumped into Skye's arms the moment the transparent front wall fell away, and Jemma's eyes suddenly felt hot and prickly.

Skye closed her eyes and held the dragon close. Her expression was hidden behind her ski mask, but Jemma didn't need to see it to understand how she felt.

Jemma reached out and stroked a hand down Raisha's back, smiling when the little creature made a quiet trilling sound.

"Is she well?" Thor asked when he finished tying up the scientist.

Skye sniffled and opened her eyes. "I think so. We need to get out of here."

"Agreed."

"We can't go back the way we came." Fitz said as he walked over to the group. He was moving more slowly now, and Jemma could see a worrying amount of blood seeping through her bandaging. "It's too far from the exit point."

Thor nodded. "Display your map for me."

Fitz held out his tablet wordlessly and Thor looked at it for a moment. "The fastest route is through here."

"That's straight through the walls," Fitz said.

"It is," Thor said, hefting Mjolnir. "If you are concerned about damage to the building..."

"I'm more worried about damage to anyone standing on the other side of the walls!"

"I will not break all the walls at once." Thor's red cape spread out majestically as he strode across the hangar. "Mjolnir is capable of subtlety in her destruction."

With that, he drew back and smashed the wall with a huge blow. Dust and rubble flew into the air and Jemma was suddenly grateful for her mask, even though it smelled woolly and stale, because it kept the worst of the debris out of her lungs. Raisha made an unhappy sound and buried her head against Skye's neck.

When the worst of the dust cleared, there was a hole in the wall that was more than large enough for Jemma, Fitz, and Skye to step through. Fitz stumbled as they hurried to it and Jemma wordlessly slung his uninjured arm over her shoulders so she could support him. Another crashing boom announced Thor's continued destruction of all the walls between them and the outside.

Skye went ahead with Raisha, sheltering the dragon's head with her hand, and not complaining even though Raisha's claws had to be piercing all the way through her jacket. Jemma and Fitz followed, and Jemma almost had to drag Fitz through the holes in the last two walls. He leaned heavily against her when they emerged into the night, and she staggered for a moment before regaining her balance.

Four dark shapes converged on them. Jemma didn't have the energy or the spare hands to make even a token attempt at threatening them.

"You destroyed the facility?" Coulson's voice sent a wave of relief through Jemma, despite the mixture of incredulity and horror in his tone. "Director Fury's going to have all our asses for this. He was angry enough about the Bus."

"Sir, he's going to have our asses if we get caught here anyway," Barton said, sounding unnaturally cheerful. "A bit of incidental property damage is probably the least of his worries."

"You've already caused more than 'a bit' of incidental property damage."

"Yeah, but it was fun."

Jemma couldn't decide whether they were arguing or flirting. She suspected the two options probably converged more often than not for them.

"We're surrounded," Ward said.

The smaller figure that Jemma assumed was May shook her head. "This was a bad plan."

Thor grinned, wide and happy, and looked up to the starry sky. "Heimdall!"

Jemma opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, but she didn't have time to say anything. Bright light surrounded her and filled her, consuming every fibre of her being. Coruscating colours filled her vision, and she felt as though she was being pulled apart and put together all at once. It should have been painful, a tiny part of her tried to reason, but it was the most incredible rush she'd ever experienced. Her whole body had become a thing of energy and whirling light, and she embraced the feeling without a shred of fear.

***

Jemma's feet hit the ground and she stumbled. The transition back to a solid body with mass and a set of senses that weren't quite in synch with her surroundings took her by surprise. Everything felt too dull and too much all at once and there was a heavy weight dragging at her shoulders, pulling her to the ground. Jemma tried to correct her balance, but her limbs weren't obeying properly yet. All she managed to do was stagger a step and tumble to the ground.

The heavy weight fell on her with a loud, pained grunt.

Jemma opened her eyes and closed them again immediately. She was lying in a room with curved golden walls, and only a moment ago she'd been on a SHIELD base. Thor had called for someone just before the beam hit them. A beam of multi-coloured light that had sucked her into a strange place and transported her...somewhere.

It had to be Asgard.

"Is he hurt?"

The voice was Coulson's. He sounded worried and very close. Jemma opened her eyes again and found Coulson leaning over her, his hair standing up in sweaty tufts and a concerned expression in his eyes.

The rest of her memories flooded back and Jemma's stomach sank.

Fitz.

She tried to sit up, but Fitz's weight pinned her to the floor.

"He was shot," she said, pushing vainly at Fitz's body. "Just a flesh wound, he said, but he's been bleeding heavily ever since. I need to--" She broke off as a huge man in gold armour moved into her field of vision and lifted Fitz as easily as if he was lifting a child. "Oh."

It was a relief to take a deep breath, but she didn't waste time revelling in it. Jemma scrambled to her feet and touched Fitz's arm, dismayed when her hand came away sticky with blood.

"I will take him to the healers," the big man said. "They will be able to repair the damage easily."

Coulson shook his head. "There's no time. We need to get back to Earth fast, so we're not missing when someone from SHIELD goes to check on us."

"You think someone will?" Skye asked. She'd also pulled off her mask--everyone had, now that Jemma could look around--and she was still holding Raisha tight in her arms. "How fast do you think they'll send anyone out?"

"They'll have a team on the road already," May said. "Your fake comm error will just make them suspicious when they try to contact the Bus."

"Heimdall, you must open the Bridge to Midgard again," Thor said. "As fast as possible."

"This man is injured," the armoured man--Heimdall--said. His strange golden eyes were compassionate when he looked down at Fitz. "We should give him aid, or he might not survive."

"Put him down so I can examine him," Jemma said.

Heimdall's eyebrows were hidden in the shadow of his helmet, but she suspected he'd raised both of them. "Are you a healer?"

Jemma shrugged. "Of a sort. It's not my main qualification, obviously, but I've had enough training to know what I'm doing. Put him down and I'll examine him."

Fitz whined softly when Heimdall gently placed him on the dais. It was a good sign, and Jemma made a mental note to tease him about it when he was better. She crouched and pulled off his mask.

A sense of shapes looming around her made the hairs on Jemma's neck stand up. She sighed and lifted her head. Everyone--even Thor--was crowding close, and the effect was stifling.

"Please, can you stand just a little further back?" she asked.

Coulson pursed his lips, but he gestured and everyone took two careful steps back. It would have to do.

She brushed her fingers over Fitz's forehead, which was clammy and cool. His lips looked bloodless, but his eyes flickered open at her touch and she smiled reassuringly. "You're going to be alright."

"You're a rotten liar," Fitz said, so quietly she almost didn't catch the words. "How bad is it?"

Jemma felt for his pulse and forced herself not to frown at its fast pace. She didn't dare to pull the gauze away in case she dislodged something and made the bleeding worse.

"I've seen worse," Jemma said. She turned to look up at Coulson. "We need to get him back to the Bus soon, though."

Coulson nodded. "Thor, send us back."

"What about Raisha?" Skye asked. "They'll take her back as soon as they find her on the Bus."

"She can stay here," Thor said. "We would be proud to tend to such a noble creature."

Skye took a step away from him, moving closer to Jemma. "Why do you want her?"

Jemma reached out and rested a hand on Raisha's back, her wrist brushing against Skye's arm to let her know she wasn't alone. She had never been good at the kind of physical reassurance Skye did so instinctively, but she hoped Skye understood what she was trying to do. They had a sort of understanding now, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

It was more subtle than glaring at Thor and threatening him with retribution if he hurt Skye or Raisha, which was what she really wanted to do.

Thor's smile was gentle and calming. "I do not intend any harm to her. She would have a safe home here--that is all I offer. If you return to Midgard with her, can you be certain that nobody will try to take her and study her again? Here, she will have food, and shelter, and clear skies to fly in when she has grown."

Skye still looked dubious, and Raisha seemed to be picking up on it. She was glaring at Thor. It was probably only a matter of time before she started trying to scorch him. "Are you sure this is the best place for her?"

Coulson moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Thor. "It's a good solution. We can't protect her and stay a part of SHIELD, and you can't go on the run with her."

"I could," Skye said stubbornly.

"Sure you could," Barton said. "And you'd get picked up in a day, because running with a small dragon? Not exactly subtle. It's not like you could pretend she's anything else. Well, you could try to pretend she's a dinosaur, but is anyone really going to believe that Jurassic Park is real? And is that actually going to help?"

Jemma almost began to explain all the ways she could probably build a dinosaur, but she thought better of it immediately and swallowed the words down. It really wasn't the point right now.

"I guess," Skye said. "If you want to be all logical about it."

"It would not be goodbye forever," Thor said.

"You're going to bring me here for visits?" Skye asked.

Thor's smile widened. "There will be no need. Did I not mention that she will be able to open portals of her own when she learns to fly? She will be able to visit you whenever she wishes."

Skye blinked. "I'd forgotten about that."

"So had I," Jemma admitted. "He makes a good case, though."

"You think I should leave her here?" Skye asked.

"I think it's our only option," Jemma said. "If we want her to be safe, we can't take her back with us. At least here, she'll be treated well. Thor will make sure of it."

Thor bowed his head. "You have my word. When I am not here, I will ensure that she is watched over by someone I trust."

Skye sighed and gently turned Raisha's head so their eyes could meet. "I know you don't understand all this right now, because you're just a baby, but this is your best chance."

Raisha chirruped softly, almost as though she understood the intent even if she didn't understand the words. Jemma stroked a thumb over her warm scales and pretended her eyes weren't getting hot and prickly again.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jemma saw Heimdall draw a huge sword and place it in a socket at the centre of the dais. The room filled with a low hum and the walls began to move.

"They'll take care of you here," Skye said softly. "Learn to fly fast, OK? I'm going to miss you. The sooner you can come and visit, the happier I'll be."

The walls were spinning now and something like lightning seemed to be crackling around Heimdall's sword. Goosebumps rose on Jemma's skin as the air seemed to fill with energy waiting for release.

Skye lowered her head and kissed the tip of Raisha's nose. The little dragon made a sad sound and gently patted Skye's hair. Even though she was only a few days old, she seemed to understand sadness and comfort already.

"Be good for Thor and his friends," Skye said. "Try not to burn any of them. Burn cushions if you get angry, not people."

"I will ensure we do not do anger her enough to harm us," Thor said, "and we will provide her with suitable targets if she wishes to improve her aim."

"She's pretty good at hitting a bouncy ball," Barton said. "Goodbye, terrifying tiny buddy. Come visit us when you've got the flying thing down, OK? You'll drive Stark nuts; it'll be great."

Jemma couldn't suppress a smile as Ward and May solemnly said goodbye to Raisha. Coulson was the last. He squeezed Skye's shoulder and bent to whisper something to Raisha too quietly for Jemma to hear.

The spinning walls were moving too fast to see, now, and the lighting energy feeling was making Jemma's skin itch. She gave Raisha's head ridge one final scratch, and wished they were alone so she could brush away the tears sliding down Skye's face. She wanted to kiss them away and hold Skye tight, but that would have to wait.

The Bridge opened with a loud whoosh, filling the room with light and a cool breeze that caught in Jemma's throat.

"Time to go," Coulson said. "Skye?"

Skye nodded and held Raisha close for one last moment. "Goodbye."

Thor stepped closer and gently took the tiny creature from Skye. Raisha squawked unhappily, but Thor petted her back and she calmed down easily. She even hooked a claw behind one of the plates of his armour, as though she wasn't entirely certain yet that he wouldn't drop her.

Jemma watched Ward and Barton carefully lift Fitz and carry him through the portal. Fitz flapped his hands in protest at being carried, but he was too sluggish to do anything else and they all disappeared into the light. May followed on their heels and Coulson didn't hesitate before stepping through after her.

Skye's smile was watery, but it was there, and somehow Jemma knew everything would be alright. She took Skye's hand when it was offered, squeezed tight, and they walked into the light without looking back.


	7. Epilogue

Jemma rolled over and stretched luxuriously. The bed was soft and comfortable, and the faint thump-swish of waves not far away kept threatening to pull her back into sleep. Something had woken her, though, and when her reaching hand met nothing except warm sheets, she realised what it was.

She reluctantly sat up, abandoning her cosy cocoon, and pushed her hair out of her face. The pretty bedroom, decorated with worn driftwood and pale colours, was empty apart from her. A salt-tinged breeze brushed her bare shoulders and Jemma shivered. It would be warmer later, probably too warm, but it was still early and the sun hadn't moved around to this side of the small cottage yet.

Jemma sighed and gave in to the inevitable. She rolled out of bed, grabbed her robe from a hook on the back of the door, and sleepily shuffled into the bathroom.

A couple of minutes later, she felt much more human and capable of being awake. The smell of coffee filled her nose as she left the bathroom, and she followed it to the tiny open plan kitchen-slash-living area. Patio doors framed a view of white sands and a pure blue ocean, and she paused for a moment to take it in.

As vacation destinations went, this one really was perfect.

Even better than the view of the ocean, though, was the sight in the kitchen: Skye, wearing a t-shirt that just barely reached the tops of her thighs and nothing else, leaning back against a counter. She was staring down into the steaming mug in her hands, although Jemma suspected she wasn't really seeing it. Her eyes didn't seem to be focusing on anything in particular, and there was a hint of a frown lining her brow. It didn't take a genius to work out that she'd been dreaming again, and she hadn't shaken it off yet.

After the last few months, it would have been amazing if Skye hadn't been having nightmares. That was part of the reason Jemma had talked her into booking this cottage the moment Coulson announced the team was on leave. She could have gone back to England to see her family, but time with Skye seemed more important right now.

"Good morning," Jemma said quietly, trying not to startle Skye. "You're up early."

Skye's pensive expression cleared and she smiled, a real smile that made Jemma feel unexpectedly relieved. "I was going to bring you tea in bed, but you've ruined my cunning plan."

There was a tea pot next to the coffee maker, and a mug waiting next to it.

"We could still take things back to bed," Jemma said. "Tea in bed sounds precarious, but we could do it."

"Or we could sit out in the sunshine and recaffeinate," Skye said. "Much safer, and there's the view."

"The view looks pretty good in here." Jemma tried to copy the ridiculous expression Skye sometimes used when she was being deliberately seductive. "You're all untidy and unwashed. It's a good look for you."

Skye chuckled. "I'm pretty sure you're complimenting me, but sometimes it's hard to tell."

"It's definitely a compliment," Jemma said, crossing the room in a few steps. "It sounded better in my head."

"Your compliments usually do. At least you haven't offered to dissect my eyeballs lately."

"You're never letting me live that down, are you?"

"Nope," Skye said cheerfully. She put her mug down on the shelf behind her. "Come here, before you try to flirt with me."

The words were too warm and affection to sting, and Jemma was too relaxed to feel much like arguing about her flirting prowess. Not that there was much to argue about--she really was bad at it--but sometimes it was worth arguing just to see Skye's expressions. 

Today, though, she was much more interested in wrapping her arms around Skye and kissing her until they were both breathless. Skye was warm and soft against her, and she tasted of coffee and toothpaste. Jemma sucked on her lower lip, which made Skye gasp softly and pull her closer. Warm, determined fingers tangled in Jemma's hair, because Skye always seemed to want to mess her up when they kissed.

Skye claimed that she didn't, but Jemma had noticed that she always looked a bit rumpled even if all they'd done was exchange a quick good morning kiss in a private corner of her lab.

She tilted her head and sighed when Skye kissed along her jaw to the spot just under her ear that always made her tingle. Warm lips and just a hint of teeth did the usual trick, and Jemma couldn't keep her eyes open. It was tempting to move her hands down Skye's body, to slide them under the hem of the too-short t-shirt so she could feel smooth warm skin, but Jemma resisted. If she started something like that, they'd never stop.

They had a whole week of vacation and the tea was getting cold.

Jemma hadn't quite mustered the strength to pull away when the low rumble of a hungry stomach intruded. The air was cool against Jemma's neck when Skye pulled back.

"I think that was me," Skye said, looking sheepish. Her lips were pink and swollen from kissing. "Guess I'm hungry."

Jemma nodded. "Maybe we should eat breakfast before we think about doing anything...else."

"Are you saying that food is more important than sex?"

"Your stomach definitely is."

There was another quiet rumble and Skye winced. "Yeah, you've got a point. OK, breakfast. Think we can figure out eggs and toast?"

They ate breakfast outside, on a small patio that opened straight onto the beach. The sun had just crept far enough around the cottage to make it a comfortably warm spot. Skye didn't put on any more clothes than her t-shirt, and Jemma was thankful all over again that the cottage rental came with a private beach.

She didn't know what the rest of the team were doing with their vacation time, although she'd seen Barton hopping into Lola just before Coulson drove away from the airfield. Asking why Barton had miraculously arrived just in time to disappear with Coulson was completely pointless. Jemma had learned that was usually a question she didn't want to think about much.

Despite the strains of the last few months, Coulson seemed happier than he had been when she'd first met him. She thought Barton's presence in his life, even when Barton was back in New York, had a lot to do with that.

Jemma was happier now as well, even though being discreet around the Bus meant she didn't get much private time with Skye. It made the time they had together that bit more special.

Like this vacation. They had a whole week in their beach paradise. Jemma had brought some journals to read, but she suspected she wouldn't get past the first abstract.

A warm, sandy foot rubbed against Jemma's ankle and brought a smile to her lips, distracting her from her thoughts. Skye's answering grin was slightly wicked.

"Have you ever gone skinny dipping?" Skye asked.

"No," Jemma said, taking a neat bite of toast.

"I forgot my swim suit," Skye said, mock solemnly. "You might need to join me in solidarity."

"After we've digested breakfast properly," Jemma said. "And if we--" She broke off as a popping sound echoed across the beach. "Where did that come from?"

Skye half stood, shading her eyes with her hand so she could scan the beach. "I don't know. I can't see anything."

There was another pop, louder--or maybe closer--this time, and Jemma gasped as a bright white hole seemed to open in the sky above the ocean. It was only there for a moment before it closed with another small bang, but that was long enough for something to emerge from it.

The shape was oddly familiar, but Jemma wasn't sure why. It flew towards them with long, graceful beats of its wings.

"Raisha?" Skye said incredulously, just before the small dragon landed in the sand a few feet away.

She misjudged her landing and tumbled head over tail, ending up sprawled at Skye's feet with her wings tangled over her head. Jemma didn't quite manage to swallow down her giggles at the inelegant finish to Raisha's flight.

Raisha chirruped, looking up at Skye with an expression in her yellow eyes that could only be described as 'adoring'.

Skye crouched, and put one hand out to gently touch Raisha's wingtip. "You learned to fly, huh?"

Another chirrup, and Raisha clumsily lurched to her feet. She looked over her shoulder and hissed at her wings, but she managed to get them lying flat along her back without any discomfort. Jemma suspected the hiss was because the wings had in some way betrayed her in the final moments of her first ever landing.

Jemma abandoned her half-eaten breakfast to move closer to Skye, feeling oddly pleased when Skye leaned against her leg.

"Does Thor know you're here?" Skye asked.

If Raisha understood the words, she didn't show any sign. Instead she threw herself at Skye, sending them both tumbling down into the sand again. Skye laughed and her arms went around Raisha immediately.

"Guess that's a no, then," Skye said. "Thanks for making me your first call."

"Did you know she would come here?" Jemma asked.

Skye, still half-buried under a small, happy dragon, shook her head. "I knew she was happy about something, but that was all. Just...happy and kind of excited. But I haven't really been thinking about all this stuff lately."

Jemma knelt down and put a hand on Raisha's back, the hide radiating warmth against her fingers. Her robe was going to be full of sand for days but she didn't really care. "You think Raisha bonded to you because of what you are?"

"Not entirely human?" Skye shrugged, looking less unhappy about the reminder than she usually did. "Why else do you think she bonded to me?"

It was a fair point, and Jemma wished she'd known about Skye's history when Raisha had first been found. All her focus had been on learning about Raisha's biology; she hadn't even thought to investigate the mechanism behind Raisha's connection to Skye. It hadn't seemed important at the time. Beyond running a few blood tests and establishing that Skye had slightly raised oxytocin levels, she'd ignored their bond completely.

Of course, if she hadn't ignored it and she'd put anything in her notes about it, the last few months could have been even worse. SHIELD would have taken Skye as well as Raisha and she would never have found either of them again.

"I assumed she bonded to you because you were nearest when she hatched," Jemma said.

"I was near because I heard her before she hatched," Skye said.

"Oh."

Raisha butted against Skye's hand, and Skye obediently scratched behind her head ridge. The dragon purred. "Are you going to want to study us again?"

Jemma shook her head. "No. We're on holiday, remember? Just two people enjoying a romantic get-away."

"With an unexpected dragon for company?"

"With an unexpected dragon," Jemma agreed. "One that's visiting, not staying, and won't accidentally burn anything or do anything destructive to our rented cottage."

Raisha shot her an injured look, and Jemma shrugged.

"At least we know she can visit now," Skye said. "I was starting to worry."

"Should we tell anyone?" Jemma asked, hoping the answer would be 'no' for a while.

"Maybe when we get home. Like you said, we're on vacation."

"With a dragon."

"With a dragon." Skye smiled. "Do you think she likes water?"

"You want to go skinny-dipping with a dragon?" Jemma asked dubiously.

"Hey, I just remembered that I brought my swim suit after all." Skye dropped her voice to add, "We can do the skinny-dipping thing after she goes home for the night. Midnight swim sound good?"

Jemma leaned down, ignoring Raisha's indignant snort, and kissed Skye gently. "Yes."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Here There Be Dragons (Art)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622813) by [varjohaltija](https://archiveofourown.org/users/varjohaltija/pseuds/varjohaltija)




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